21 receive citizenship

TWENTY-ONE people received citizenshipson the eve of the 43rd Independence anniversary.
Five became naturalised citizens and 16 were made dual citizens in a ceremony headed by Immigration and Border Security Minister Petrus Thomas on Friday.
Thomas, when handing the citizenship certificates, said they were a special group of people because they had made an important decision to affirm their loyalty to Papua New Guinea.
“We have recipients of whom 14 are from Australia and one from the United States,” he said.
“They are married to PNG spouses, invested and built businesses here or have worked and lived here like their home for many years.
“We also have four PNG citizens who resumed their PNG citizenship to reconnect to their people and country and for one to represent PNG in the sport of swimming.
“We have those whose parents are PNG citizen and they want to complete the missing link to be PNG citizens like their parents or siblings. This has been your country and we are proud to formally welcome you to reconnect to your heritage and be part of this country.
“I would like to welcome two former citizens from Bangladesh Runu and Nazma who are following their husbands Kalam Rahman and Amin Rahman to be part of this country.
“Kalam and Amin were recipients of PNG naturalised citizenship in 2016. Also a young man from Philippines who grew up and went to school here and is contributing to this country in the health sector. Another from China who is breeding horses in Central and building houses and connecting water supply to villages in his community, and the other from China who has a business in this country, employs locals and wants to remain and be part of the country”.
Raman said she was happy to be a citizen. “I have been in PNG for 23 years and I love this country”.
Nazma is the wife of Bismillah Holdings managing director Amin Raman.