Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg yesterday announced details of the newly-liberalised citizenship law in favour of Maltese descendants.

The main amendments to the Maltese Citizenship Act will mostly affect second and third generation citizens whose parents or grandparents were born in Malta, but left the country to settle elsewhere.

One of the amendments does away with what Minister Borg referred to as “sexual discrimination”; before the amendments came into force, children having a Maltese mother and a foreign father, who were born outside Malta were not entitled to apply to become registered Maltese citizens, even though children having a Maltese father and a foreign mother could do so.

This may now be done, in the same way that anyone proving to be a direct descendant of a Malta-born person, is now entitled to apply.

Minister Borg explained that following a number of requests from Maltese migrants, the current government chose to liberalise the citizenship law, with amendments that are also applicable to descendants whose forefathers settled in places like Egypt and Libya.

Dual citizenship was not allowed between 1964 and 1989, except for minors who, when reaching the age of 18 years, had to choose the nationality they wanted to hold on to. Dual citizenship was then introduced in 1989, when the first reform to the law was made.

The second reform in 2000 provided that dual citizenship would not be directly linked to emigration; neither was it solely linked to whether or not one was born in or outside Malta.

Rather, dual citizenship became applicable to anyone having a Maltese parent and there was no longer any need for children of a Maltese parent to have to make the choice at 18 years of age. Between 1989 and 2000, 12,250 Maltese descendants obtained dual citizenship.

The new amendments now provide for people born outside Malta to Maltese parents to also be able to apply for dual citizenship, said Minister Borg, adding that the reason behind the amendments was mostly related to the fact that many children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Maltese emigrants are proud to have Maltese roots.

Another change to the law provides for the possibility for dual citizenship to be granted to those born outside Malta before 1964 with just one Maltese parent. This was previously only possible if the person involved came to settle down in Malta, said Dr Borg.

He said that while the amendments are most likely to affect second and third generation citizens, it has also been extended to subsequent generations, who may apply to exercise this new right.

The minister pointed out that it was a mere coincidence that the coming into effect of the amendments to the citizenship law happened at the same time that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi is visiting Australia, where the largest number of Maltese emigrants are said to have settled.

It is estimated that about 150,000 to 200,000 Maltese descendants currently reside in Australia, he said, adding that it was important to point out that exercising the right to dual citizenship meant that Maltese descendants would automatically be granted the right to freedom of movement in EU member States.