ZAGREB, April 24 (NNN-HINA) — Since the war ended in 1996, Bosnia and Herzegovina have lost more than 86,000 of its citizens and the accelerated emigration trend continues, the Dnevni Avaz daily reported on Wednesday, citing figures released by the Civil Affairs Ministry.
The ministry also said 1,263 have also requested to give up their Bosnian citizenship since the start of 2019.
Spokeswoman for the Civil Affairs Ministry Zorica Rulj warned about the worrisome figures, saying that people giving up their Bosnian citizenship were mostly younger than 30 and holding a university degree.
They chose to move to Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Norway and the Czech Republic.
Bosnia does not have a dual citizenship agreement with those countries, so the emigrants easily opt to give up their Bosnian citizenship.
Under the Bosnian law, they are not required to explain the reasons for renouncing their citizenship. They only need to submit proof that they are guaranteed citizenship of another country.
The fee for the procedure of giving up citizenship amounts to EUR 400, so the state has made an unexpected profit from people leaving. Those who renounced Bosnian citizenship paid a total of HRK 1.79 million in renouncement citizenship fees in 2018.
–NNN-HINA
