New Delhi:
Nauru, a Pacific island nation, about 8 square miles in size, is offering citizenship at $105,000 approximately Rs 91.5 lakh. The country’s passport offers visa-free access to 89 countries, including Ireland, Hong Kong, the UAE, Singapore, and the UK.
The tiny island country in Micronesia, northeast of Australia, is looking for people to buy its ‘golden passports’ to boost the country’s fight against climate change, CNN reported.
Kirstin Surak, author of The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires, said, “Selling citizenship has the potential to make an absolutely enormous economic impact for micro-states like Nauru.”
The 21 square kilometre island is facing an existential crisis, facing the threat of rising sea levels, coastal erosion and storm surges as the planet warms.
The low-lying nation, with a population of around 12,500 residents, lacks resources to protect itself from a climate crisis. The nation aims to relocate its residents onto higher ground and build a new community, which will cost around Rs 545 crore.
Nauru’s Economic and Climate Resilience Citizenship Programme head Edward Clark said the initiative, launched last year, has already started receiving applications. He further said that the country aimed to receive 66 successful applications this year.
“We would like to achieve 500 applicants coming through the programme, totalling about Euro 50 million (approximately Rs 453 crore),” said Mr Clark. The country’s relocation plans would be almost entirely funded by the amount, which would account for almost 20 per cent of all government revenue in Nauru.
Nauru’s President David Adeang said, “It is not just about adapting to climate change but about securing a sustainable and prosperous future for generations to come. This is about more than survival. It is about ensuring future generations have a safe, resilient and sustainable home.”
Though this is not the first time the country has come up with the idea of the ‘golden passport’. Earlier, in 2003, the scheme failed after the country reportedly provided citizenship to two Al-Qaeda members, who were later arrested in Malaysia.
This time, Nauru says it will impose strict vetting standards and only give passports to investors who share its values and pass the strictest and most detailed background checks.
Since the early 1900s, Nauru has been severely mined for phosphate, leaving the majority of its land ruined and uninhabitable. People are forced to live along the coast, where increasing sea levels are a major hazard, because roughly 80 percent of the island is uninhabitable.
Following the depletion of phosphate, Nauru sought alternative sources of income. It has hosted Australia’s offshore detention camps for refugees since the early 2000s; however, the program was discontinued following the deaths of detainees.
The World Bank’s climate risk profile of Nauru indicates that the country is extremely sensitive to climate change and that sea levels might rise by 15 to 30 cm by 2050.