D66 and GroenLinks-PvdA want to record in the law that people who voluntarily assume a second nationality can retain Dutch nationality. Both parties have submitted an initiative law, reports ANP news agency.
With the bill, the parties want to prevent the Dutch from ending up abroad without a passport when a country decides to take their nationality. Even anyone who has been involuntarily lost his Dutch nationality since 2003 should be able to get it back through a simple procedure. The law also ensures that immigrants who assume Dutch nationality can retain their original passport.
The initiators Jan Paternotte (D66) and Songül Mutluer (GroenLinks-PvdA) mention countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Russia and Nicaragua as an example. For example, in Kuwait it is possible to obtain citizenship through marriage. Dutch people who do that must then hand in their Dutch passport. In 2024, Kuwait pulled the nationality in 42,000 people, and so those people could be without a passport.
People have also lost their citizenship in Bahrain, Nicaragua and Russia. Such situations want to prevent Paternotte and Mutluer by changing the law. In Denmark and Germany, the preservation of their own nationality has recently been made possible.