329 Citizens File For Loss Of Citizenship On Own Initiative

Illustration of passport issued by Indonesian Immigration. (Between)

JAKARTA - A total of 329 Indonesian citizens (WNI) have filed for loss of citizenship to the Directorate General of Public Law Administration (AHU) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

This was conveyed by the Director of State for the Directorate General of AHU Kemenkumham Baroto in a virtual discussion with the theme 'Loss of Citizenship Based on Law Number 12 of 2006 on Citizenship'.

"Applications for voluntary loss of citizenship certificates for persons who have acquired foreign citizenship totaled 329", Baroto said.

When referring to previous data, added Baroto, the number of applications is quite high, with a record number of applicants of eight applications in 2017, 334 applications in 2017, and 424 applications in 2019.

Furthermore, continuing the Antara report, in 2020 the number of applications rose drastically by 1,343, and in 2021 a total of 1,646 applications, he said.

In general, Kemenkumham issues six types of applications to the public, namely reports of loss of Indonesian citizenship by itself, types of applications to regain Indonesian citizenship, as well as applications for loss of Indonesian citizenship on their own application and to the president.

Next, the application for service elects Indonesian citizenship for a child with dual citizenship, the application for a certificate of loss of citizenship voluntarily for persons who have acquired foreign citizenship, and the permanent application as a citizen.

If accumulated, then the Government has issued 4,699 applications from 2017 to 2022.

Based on the survey, Baroto said several reasons why citizens choose to withdraw or relinquish their citizenship are considerations of ease of transportation, communication, employment, and certain visa-free desires.