By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
MADRID, Spain - Beginning Monday, descendants of those who fled Spain during and after the Spanish civil war and during the Franco era have a chance to apply for Spanish citizenship. Spain's justice ministry estimates that nearly 500,000 people are eligible for Spanish citizenship under the law.
Spain's 2007 Law of Historical Memory came into effect on Monday with respect to applications for Spanish citizenship for descendants of those displaced from Spain during the Franco era. Spanish citizenship is available to any individual who can prove that his or her mother, father or grandparent went into exile during the war and the first decades of the Franco dictatorship. Individuals will be able to apply until 2011.
Most of those who qualify are currently living in Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, France and Russia. On Monday hundreds lined up outside the Spanish embassy in Cuba; many people had waited in line over Christmas to obtain the application form. In Argentina, where an estimated 300,000 eligible persons reside, citizenship application meetings have already been scheduled through July 2009.
The Descendants of Exiles Association estimates that there are around 180,000 children and grandchildren of exiles living abroad and that the ministry's higher figure includes those who left Spain to escape poverty.
During the Spanish civil war, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, and Franco's dictatorship which followed, hundreds of thousands fled Spain because their political associations put their lives in jeopardy.
For more information, please see:
BBC - Exiles get Spain passport chance - 27 December 2008
Reuters - Spain offers passports to Franco exiles - 29 December 2008
TIME - 500,000 New Citizens for Spain? - 29 December 2008




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