Italian police carried out a search and seizure operation on Thursday (19) at the civil registry office of the city hall of Lauriano, on the outskirts of Turin, as part of an investigation into irregularities in citizenship application processes made by Brazilians.
The survey is conducted by Ivrea Public Prosecutor's Office and is investigating possible falsification of public documents and corruption. The irregularities are believed to be linked to 30 residency applications from candidates for Italian citizenship.
Citizenship for Brazilians
According to data from interior Ministery prepared by the National Statistics Institute (Istat), Brazilians responded for 85% of requests for recognition of citizenship by blood right (jus sanguinis) made on Italian soil in 2017 — 7.014, out of a total of 8.252.
The numbers exclude procedures carried out by the consular network. Next, with 549 individuals (6,7%), Argentines appear, followed by Moroccans, with 109 (1,3%), Americans, with 69 (0,8%), and Venezuelans, with 65 (0,8%). %). Citizens of other nationalities account for 5,4% of cases.
To recognize citizenship on Italian soil, you must take up residence in the country during the processing of the applicationo, which may take a few months.
When taking into account all types of citizenship (due to length of residence, marriage or other reasons), Brazilians fall to third place in the ranking. In 2017, Italy registered 146.605 citizenship acquisition processes (technical term used by Istat), of which 27.112 were Albanians (18,5%), 22.645 were Moroccans (15,4%) and 9.936 were Brazilians (6,8%) .
Several investigations have already led to the revocation of citizenships of hundreds of Brazilians for corruption and irregularities in the certification of residence.
