Latest news with #nationality
CTV News
05-07-2025
- CTV News
Protests against surging mass tourism in Mexico City end in vandalism, harassment of tourists
A man points to his Mexican ID to prove his nationality as people protest against gentrification, as the increase in remote workers has risen prices and increased housing demand in neighborhoods like Condesa and Roma, in Mexico City, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Orbach)
The National
30-06-2025
- General
- The National
‘Does a child take the mother's or father's nationality?'
Question: I am Canadian and my husband is Egyptian. We are going to have our first child this year. Can our child take my nationality or does the father's nationality take priority? He is Muslim and I am Christian, does that make a difference? I plan to give birth in Abu Dhabi. JE, Abu Dhabi Answer: A UAE birth certificate is a relatively simple document and it does not make any reference to the baby's nationality or religion. The certificate is issued in the hospital where the delivery takes place, in both Arabic and English. It includes basic data about the child but only states the names, nationality and religion of the father and the mother. This means it can be used to apply for whichever passport, or even passports, the child is eligible for. Generally, a child can take the nationality of either parent or both. Parents have the choice and the religion of the parents does not affect this. Note that all non-nationals in the UAE must have the birth certificate attested by the relevant health department, which varies by emirate, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are companies that can assist with this process. Residents have 120 days from the birth of their child to arrange a passport, Emirates ID and visa for the baby. If the process is not completed within that time, there is a fine of Dh100 ($27) a day. Q: I am buying a property in England and have been asked for an EWS form by the mortgage lender. We're using a friend for the conveyancing and she isn't familiar with it. What do we do? HJ, Riyadh A: An EWS1 form is now a common requirement for UK property. It stands for external wall system fire review certificate and demonstrates that a property has undergone and passed a fire safety assessment. This item, which was introduced in 2018, is usually required for all purchases and remortgages of flats (apartments) following the Grenfell tragedy, a fire in an apartment block in London in 2017. The building had combustible cladding on the outside. This is not permitted for any new builds and existing properties must make changes. The form was initially required for all buildings more than 18 metres or six storeys tall but has since been expanded. All new-build properties must comply with fire safety regulations and while EWS1 forms are not a legal requirement, lenders can refuse a mortgage application if one is not available. The process to obtain one involves a fire safety assessment by a suitably qualified professional, usually a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. For a new property, a developer will obtain this before the property is fully completed and handed over. HJ should contact the developer that he is buying from to request a copy of the EWS1 form. All good developers will have been through this procedure and will provide the document, which is valid for five years. Q: I have set up a company and plan to take on two members of staff. I have written offer letters but before I send them, I want to know if there is anything that I must legally include. PU, Dubai A: An offer letter should include all relevant details and be clear about what the role is. While there is no official wording for offer letters, it is wise to take into consideration all that is required in a contract of employment. The requirements are set out in Cabinet resolution No (1) of 2022, which is an addition to the UAE Labour Law. Article 10 states: 'The employment contract shall include, in principal, the employer's name and address, the worker's name, nationality, date of birth, and what is needed to prove his identity, his qualifications, occupation or professions, date of joining work, place of work, working hours, rest days, probation period if available, term of the contract, the wage as agreed upon, including benefits and allowances, length of the deserved annual leave, notice period, procedures of terminating the employment contract and any other data determined by the Ministry in accordance to what is required to regulate the relationship between both parties.' The offer letter can also include any additional provisions such as the terms for payment of bonuses or commissions and agreed salary reviews. For a small business, it is wise to seek expert advice to ensure that you adhere to UAE labour law. You can employ HR consultants for a few hours to assist and advise whenever required.
Telegraph
29-06-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Lions tours need needle, not niceties: Bring on the Aussie baiting
The stadium announcer at the Optus Stadium did such a good job of pointing out some of the Lions' players alternate nationalities that one can only hope he receives the same gig for the Test series. 'And now introducing your 100 per cent pure-bred Wallabies. On the wing, there is Wimbledon-born but now magically Australian, Harry Potter. Introducing our centre, its Samoan-born, New Zealand-raised, capped by the Samoan Under-20s, Hunter Paisami. At fly-half there is another Kiwi in Noah Lolesio. Starting in the second row, it's another one born in New Zealand, of Samoan descent, who has spent most of his life in Europe, it's our big fella Will Skelton … and at prop, it's the Tongan Thor now an Aussie by residency, Taniela Tupou.' You see, that dual nationality thing cuts both ways and David Campese's description of the tourists as the 'British and Irish and Pacific Island Lions' applies far more to the Wallabies than it does to Andy Farrell's squad. Indeed, Australia's resident rent-a-quote might want to look at who instituted the project player system in Ireland which brought in players such as Bundee Aki, James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park, a certain J Schmidt. Really, the only countries who can legitimately mount a high horse about foreign-born players are from South America. Nearly everywhere else, the lines of what can be considered 'native', as Willie John McBride crudely termed it, have been blurred by the modern trends of global migration. People of multicultural backgrounds do not always fit into neat pigeonholes. Does Marcus Smith not have the right to represent the Lions because he was born in Manila to an English father and Filipina mother? Or if he does then surely Mack Hansen, who has an Australian father and Irish mother, must also qualify? If not, then where do you draw the line? Passport? Schooling? Accent? These are decisions that go far beyond Farrell's remit as Lions head coach and if you speak to the wonderfully entertaining Pierre Schoeman, or the engaging Sione Tuipulotu, you will be absolutely convinced of their legitimate passion to represent the Lions. Nor is this a particularly new development. Go back a century and you will find Tom Richards and Blair Swannell having represented both the Lions and Australia. Both war heroes are now honoured with man-of-the-match medals during this tour. Still, the subject of the Lions' mixed nationalities was low-hanging fruit that the stadium announcer in Perth was absolutely entitled to go for, likely a juicy full toss pitched up across the bridge at the Waca. Tuipulotu took no grave offence and almost seemed hurt that the Aussie sledging was not of a higher standard. This is standard fare for a Lions tour. Four years ago, Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus injected a poison into the series with his character assassination of referee Nic Berry that turned the tour toxic. Understandably, Farrell and Schmidt want to avoid a similar scenario and have resolved to be the picture of politeness towards one an other's sides, with Schmidt already rowing back on his own 'southern hemisphere centre partnership' comment about Tuipulotu and Aki. 'I'm conscious of (making provocative comments), and I'm conscious that other coaches do it, but I don't anticipate it happening in this Lions tour,' Schmidt told the Sydney Morning Herald last week. 'Faz and I have had a few conversations about how we'd like the narrative of the tour to be a celebration of rugby. I think for Australian rugby, we need that.' Balls to that. Lions tours need needle rather than niceties. The rancour is almost as famous as the rugby, from the '99' call in 1974 to 1989's Battle of Ballymore or the 2005 spear tackle of Brian O'Driscoll. The insults from Austin Healey's fateful description of Justin Harrison as a 'plank' or Warren Gatland getting the clown treatment in 2017 are as iconic as many of the tries from those series. Not everyone will have enjoyed Henry Pollock's in-your-face-celebrations following Elliot Daly's first try which prompted a minor kerfuffle, but Farrell will be delighted by the fact that the first person who rushed to his defence was Joe McCarthy. The distinctly non-glitzy McCarthy could not seem further removed from the Northampton flanker's personality, but this is precisely how bonds are formed on a Lions tour. Undoubtedly when Force flanker Nick Champion de Crespigny reports back to Wallabies camp, the target on Pollock's back will have grown further, one of about a dozen intriguing individual subplots going into this series. A rematch of Ellis Genge v Tupou from the 2022 England tour has pay-per-view potential. So too the super-heavyweight match-up between Skelton and McCarthy, while Carlo Tizzano has definitely kept the receipt of his last meeting with Tom Curry. This is all before we get to the even more fascinating master v apprentice coaching battle between Schmidt and Farrell. So bring on the sledging and the s---housery, the Lions are more than ready to deal with better barbs than what was thrown Tuipulotu's way. Lions laugh off nationalities jibes Lions centre Tuipulotu laughed off Western Force's jibes about being born Down Under, declaring the Australians need to up their sledging game. Before the Lions' first game on Australian soil, the stadium announcer at the Optus Stadium singled out the tourists' foreign-born players, including Tuipulotu, for particular attention when reading out the team sheet. 'Our former Aussie at No 14, Mack Hansen 'Another Aussie at No 12, Sione Tuipulotu 'At No 11, it's the Kiwi now Irishman, James Lowe. 'At prop, the former SA schoolboy now Scotsman, Pierre Schoeman.' The Lions were apparently unaware of these jibes being made in real time, but when the comments were relayed to Tuipulotu, who was born in Melbourne but qualifies for Scotland on account of his grandmother, he seemed genuinely amused rather than hurt. 'I knew there would be some 'good humour' coming back home to Australia,' Tuipulotu said. 'These are all things we've got to take in our stride. To not announce the elephant in the room, I am from Australia. I was born here. I don't know how funny that gag is to everyone! 'I'm loving my rugby playing for the Lions and I'm really passionate about it. Andy's brought the group together so well and to play under a coach like him, I can see why Ireland have been so successful in the past because I feel like the way he's bringing this group together, we're headed in the right direction.' Tuipulotu is the only player to have delivered back-to-back 80-minute games and looked far more comfortable playing alongside Garry Ringrose at his preferred inside-centre slot. 'I love it, I'm starting to get my feet back underneath me,' Tuipulotu said. 'Obviously I haven't played Test rugby since the autumn so I'm getting my feet back underneath me. I still feel like I've got massive growth during this tour, but I'm getting my feet back underneath me and I know I can start playing my best rugby towards the big games at the end of this tour. 'Yeah, I loved (playing with Ringrose). Geez mate, he's a missile out there, isn't he? He backs himself to make those reads and geez, he left a few sore bodies out there including himself. What a player and I really enjoyed playing with him and I also enjoyed when Shaggy came off the bench and got some valuable minutes after being out for a while now. We're linking quite nicely and we've just got to keep building towards the Test.'
Japan Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
'Stateless overnight': Kuwait strips tens of thousands of citizenship
Leaving her weekly workout class, Lama was shocked to discover she was no longer a Kuwaiti — one of tens of thousands of people, mostly women, suddenly stripped of citizenship. After her credit card payment for the class in Kuwait City was declined, she learnt her bank account was temporarily frozen because her nationality, acquired through marriage, had been revoked. "It was a shock," said the grandmother in her 50s, originally from Jordan, who like others interviewed asked to use a pseudonym, fearing a backlash from the authorities. "To be a law-abiding citizen for more than 20 years and then wake up one day to find out you're no longer a citizen ... that's not okay at all," she said. The mass revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who dissolved parliament and suspended parts of the constitution five months after taking power in December 2023. His latest citizenship policy appears aimed at restricting nationality to those with blood ties to the tiny, oil-rich nation, reshaping Kuwaiti identity and potentially trimming its electorate after years of political crisis, analysts said. In a televised speech to the country of nearly 5 million — only a third of them Kuwaitis — the emir pledged in March to "deliver Kuwait to its original people clean and free from impurities." Lama is among more than 37,000 people, including at least 26,000 women, who have lost Kuwaiti nationality since August, according to a tally of official figures. Media reports suggest the real number could be much higher. While large-scale citizenship revocations are not unheard of in Kuwait, "the volume is definitely unprecedented," said Bader al-Saif, assistant professor of history at Kuwait University. Kuwait already has a big stateless community: the Bidoon, estimated at around 100,000 people, who were denied citizenship on independence from British protectorship in 1961. 'They went after mothers' The latest campaign abolishes naturalization by marriage, which only applied to women, and revokes citizenship granted to wives since 1987. Official data shows 38,505 women were naturalized by marriage from 1993 to 2020. It also targets people with dual nationality, which Kuwait does not allow, and those who became citizens fraudulently — by using forged documents, for example. Others naturalized for their achievements, including pop singer Nawal The Kuwaiti and actor Dawood Hussain, have also lost their citizenship. "Overnight, I became stateless," said businesswoman Amal, who had been Kuwaiti for nearly two decades. Many have been left in legal limbo while they scramble to restore their previous nationality. "The right to nationality is a very basic human right, and failure to respect and ensure it can wreak havoc on people's lives, as ... the Bidoon know all too well," said Amnesty International's Mansoureh Mills. Analysts say the latest drive has the question of Kuwaiti nationhood at its core. "I trace it to the notion of identity: Who are we as a nation?" said Saif. While Kuwait's parliament is a rarity in the monarchical Gulf, its tiered citizenship system limits political rights to those born to a Kuwaiti father. After Iraq's invasion in 1990, naturalized Kuwaitis were granted voting rights after 20 years of citizenship, as were children born after their father's naturalization. It was "a token of appreciation" for standing by Kuwait, Saif said, but also a "push for national unity after liberation." But Kuwait's new leadership has "an exclusionary vision of Kuwaiti nationalism," keeping out "people who lack deep roots there," said Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics. For researcher Melissa Langworthy, who studied citizenship issues in the Gulf, naturalized women are "being told clearly that they are not the ideal reproducers of the nation." "They went after mothers, the heart of the family," lamented Lama, adding: "We are the mothers and grandmothers of the children of this country." 'Innocent women' Initially cast as a crackdown on fraudsters taking advantage of Kuwait's generous benefits, the move was welcomed in a country where many complain of corruption and mismanagement. But the mood quickly changed. A Kuwaiti man whose wife lost her citizenship said the government was equating "innocent women and fraudsters." His wife, a retired civil servant, had her pension suspended for more than six months and her bank loan frozen. "What kind of message are we conveying by inciting racism and treating them unfairly?" he said. Authorities have promised the women will be treated as Kuwaiti and keep their social benefits, but those hit by the campaign have lost any political rights. The emir cited constant standoffs between lawmakers and the royal-appointed cabinet when he dissolved the parliament, which had long delayed reforms needed to diversify the oil-reliant economy. "The Kuwaiti leadership is possibly seeking to reduce the citizen population in order to shape a smaller, more politically manageable electorate," said Cafiero.
Malay Mail
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Nationality is a right, not a favour, say women challenging Kuwait's citizenship crackdown
DUBAI, May 26 — Leaving her weekly workout class, Lama was shocked to discover she was no longer a Kuwaiti — one of tens of thousands of people, mostly women, suddenly stripped of citizenship. After her credit card payment for the class in Kuwait City was declined, she learnt her bank account was temporarily frozen because her nationality, acquired through marriage, had been revoked. 'It was a shock,' said the grandmother in her 50s, originally from Jordan, who like others interviewed by AFP asked to use a pseudonym, fearing a backlash from the authorities. 'To be a law-abiding citizen for more than 20 years and then wake up one day to find out you're no longer a citizen... that's not okay at all,' she said. The mass revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who dissolved parliament and suspended parts of the constitution five months after taking power in December 2023. His latest citizenship policy appears aimed at restricting nationality to those with blood ties to the tiny, oil-rich nation, reshaping Kuwaiti identity and potentially trimming its electorate after years of political crisis, analysts told AFP. In a televised speech to the country of nearly five million — only a third of them Kuwaitis — the emir pledged in March to 'deliver Kuwait to its original people clean and free from impurities'. Lama is among more than 37,000 people including at least 26,000 women who have lost Kuwaiti nationality since August, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Media reports suggest the real number could be much higher. While large-scale citizenship revocations are not unheard of in Kuwait, 'the volume is definitely unprecedented', said Bader al-Saif, assistant professor of history at Kuwait University. Kuwait already has a big stateless community: the Bidoon, estimated at around 100,000 people, who were denied citizenship on independence from British protectorship in 1961. 'They went after mothers' The latest campaign abolishes naturalisation by marriage, which only applied to women, and revokes citizenship granted to wives since 1987. Official data shows 38,505 women were naturalised by marriage from 1993 to 2020. It also targets people with dual nationality, which Kuwait does not allow, and those who became citizens fraudulently — by using forged documents, for example. Others naturalised for their achievements, including pop singer Nawal The Kuwaiti and actor Dawood Hussain, have also lost their citizenship. 'Overnight, I became stateless,' businesswoman Amal, who had been Kuwaiti for nearly two decades, told AFP. Many have been left in legal limbo while they scramble to restore their previous nationality. 'The right to nationality is a very basic human right, and failure to respect and ensure it can wreak havoc on people's lives, as... the Bidoon know all too well,' Amnesty International's Mansoureh Mills told AFP. Analysts say the latest drive has the question of Kuwaiti nationhood at its core. 'I trace it to the notion of identity: who are we as a nation?' said Saif. While Kuwait's parliament is a rarity in the monarchical Gulf, its tiered citizenship system limits political rights to those born to a Kuwaiti father. After Iraq's invasion in 1990, naturalised Kuwaitis were granted voting rights after 20 years of citizenship, as were children born after their father's naturalisation. It was 'a token of appreciation' for standing by Kuwait, Saif said, but also a 'push for national unity after liberation'. But Kuwait's new leadership have 'an exclusionary vision of Kuwaiti nationalism', keeping out 'people who lack deep roots there', said Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics. For researcher Melissa Langworthy, who studied citizenship issues in the Gulf, naturalised women are 'being told clearly that they are not the ideal reproducers of the nation'. 'They went after mothers, the heart of the family,' lamented Lama, adding: 'We are the mothers and grandmothers of the children of this country.' 'Innocent women' Initially cast as a crackdown on fraudsters taking advantage of Kuwait's generous benefits, the move was welcomed in a country where many complain of corruption and mismanagement. But the mood quickly changed. A Kuwaiti man whose wife lost her citizenship said the government was equating 'innocent women and fraudsters'. His wife, a retired civil servant, had her pension suspended for more than six months and her bank loan frozen. 'What kind of message are we conveying by inciting racism and treating them unfairly?' he said. Authorities have promised the women will be treated as Kuwaiti and keep their social benefits, but those hit by the campaign have lost any political rights. The emir cited constant standoffs between lawmakers and the royal-appointed cabinet when he dissolved the parliament, which had long delayed reforms needed to diversify the oil-reliant economy. 'The Kuwaiti leadership is possibly seeking to reduce the citizen population in order to shape a smaller, more politically manageable electorate,' said Cafiero. — AFP
