Thousands of Nigerians recently granted citizenship in Ireland have had their applications for Irish passports returned.
Metro Éireann has learned that the Passport Office doubts that some of the documents supplied with the applications, such as birth and marriage certificates, are genuine – despite being accepted by the Department of Justice in granting them citizenship.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Metro Éireann that the Passport Office “is obligated under the Passport Act to satisfy itself as to the authenticity of documentation provided to establish the identity of applicants.
“Authenticating documents can be complicated in the case of a number of countries due to different factors, including variations in document quality, variations in document standardisation; and, the lack of a range of security features in documents.
“In order for the Passport Office to satisfy itself as to the authenticity of documents it can be necessary to carry out additional checks,” the spokesperson added.
Metro Eireann
Like WTF????
The Dept of Justice under Alan Shatter has issued of thousands of Irish Citizenship certificates to people from Nigeria
- and yet the Passport Office says that the documents submitted to them to issue Passports on the back of these certs are dodgy!!!
One wonders what kinds of checks did the DOJ carry out in the granting of Irish Citizenship - or did they carry out anything more than a cursory examination of what paperwork was submitted by the appelents?
One wonders if the Nigerians who cannot prove that they are who they say they are to the satisfaction of the Passport authorities to be stripped of their new found 'Irish' Citizenship?
Or will the PO be told to quietly drop their inquiries in order to avoid an embarrassing scandal involving Minister Alan Shatter dishing out Irish passports to thousands of chancers?
Metro Eireann




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