Britons flood Ireland with EU passport queries after Brexit vote
Britons
trying to hang onto EU citizenship have inundated Ireland's embassy in
London and post offices in British-run Northern Ireland with passport
enquiries and requests for application forms, the Irish foreign office
said on Monday.
Post
offices ran out of forms and the embassy fielded more than 4,000
passport enquiries compared to the 200 a day it usually gets, a
diplomatic source told Reuters.
Anybody
born in the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland, or with an Irish parent
or grandparent, is entitled to an Irish passport - about six million
people living in Britain.
"Following
the UK referendum, there has been a spike in interest in Irish
passports in Northern
Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere," Irish
Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said.
"The
increased interest clearly points to a sense of concern among some UK
passport holders that the rights they enjoy as EU citizens are about to
abruptly end," he said in a statement.
Flanagan
warned that a surge in applications would place significant pressure on
turnaround times at passport offices and could affect those with
imminent travel plans.
A
member of Northern Ireland's largest Irish nationalist party, Sinn
Fein, called on the government in Dublin to open a passport office in
Belfast after post offices ran out of forms and were unable to meet
demand until more arrived.
Even
pro-British lawmaker Ian Paisley Jr., the son of the firebrand
preacher-politician of the same name who for decades cried "No
Surrender!" to Catholic nationalists' desire for closer ties with the
Irish Republic, advised constituents to apply for a second passport.
Northern Irish citizens can hold both an Irish and British passport.
Ireland's
embassy in Paris has also had a record number of requests, according to
English-born Iain McKenney, who has been living in France for eight
years and phoned the consulate on Friday to ask if he was eligible.
"The
best news I got this morning was when they told me 'Welcome to
Ireland'. I'll submit the application immediately," said McKenney, 41,
who holds British and Canadian passports but wants to retain one for the
European Union.
Elsewhere,
views are mixed among the estimated 400,000 British expatriates
entitled to dual citizenship if they have lived in France for five years
or have a French spouse.
Anne
Wilding, a 63-year-old British pensioner who has lived in the tiny
western French village of La Petite Breille for 15 years, said she was
born British and wanted to keep her nationality but may apply for French
citizenship as well if Britain does not good get a good deal on leaving
the EU.
Some
Britons are applying for Belgian passports as long-time residents of
Belgium or applying to the countries of their European spouses. Mayors
of boroughs and towns around Brussels told Le Soir newspaper their town
hall staff had been bombarded by requests on Friday from Britons seeking
citizenship.
In
London, where the population of 8.6 million is among the most
cosmopolitan in the world, younger workers who mainly voted for Britain
to remain in the EU were also mulling their options.
"I'm
not happy with the result," said Miriam Sottile, a 25-year-old English
teacher whose father is Italian and who is now planning to apply for an
Italian passport.
"I
feel like I'm European. I want to stay in the EU and I don't know what
the limitations will be. I want to have the same opportunities I’ve
always had."
Source: Reuters
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