El Salvador Offers 5000 Free Passports, Says The Number "Poses No Issue" (image@nayibbukele)
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele announced that the country will offer 5,000 free passports to highly skilled workers. He said the number is equivalent to $5 billion in the country’s passport programmes. Taking to his X (formerly twitter) account, Bukele added that the number constitute to less than 0.1 percent of the Central American country, “so granting them full citizen status, including voting rights, poses no issue”. The citizenships are allowed to skilled scientists, engineers, doctors, artists and philosophers.
Bukele said though the number of people allowed citizenship is small, the contributions from them will have huge impact on the society and future of El Salvador. The President also ensured zero taxes and tariffs to relocation of families and new assets of the new citizens.
We”re offering 5,000 free passports (equivalent to $5 billion in our passport program) to highly skilled scientists, engineers, doctors, artists, and philosophers from abroad.
This represents less than 0.1% of our population, so granting them full citizen status, including…
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 6, 2024
Last year, Bukele introduced a $1,000 fee for passengers coming from India or Africa to curb migration to the United States through the Central American country, according to El Salvador’s port authority. The fee will increase to $1,130 with the value-added tax (VAT). The fee took effect on October 23, 2023.
Individuals traveling with passports from India and 50 African nations are required to pay a fee of $1,000. The funds collected will be used for the development of the country’s primary international airport, El Salvador’s port authority said in a statement.
The decision comes in the wake of a global trend where many countries, including Thailand, Barcelona, Valencia, Portugal, Belgium, Venice, Austria, Bhutan, and France, have started demanding fees from travelers from specific countries.
El Salvador was once a forte of gangsters. As reported by AFP, nearly three quarters of the country’s gang members have been arrested since Bukele initiated a crackdown on them two years ago. According to the security minister of the country, those apprehended were 79,184, and efforts are underway to track down the remaining 25,000. He also added that not all of them are inside the country, as many have fled the nation after the start of crack down.
Talking to TCS television network, Gustavo Villatoro said that, “With the record of arrests that we have, in general terms, we can say that we”re at around 75 percent … and that we have 25 percent left”.
In 2022, Nayib Bukele launched a campaign against gangs by employing a a state of emergency which suspended the need of arrest warrants and other civil liberties. His method garnered criticism human rights groups. The Amnesty International characterised the move as “disproportionate”.
However, Bukele, who was re-elected for another five years term in last February said that the crackdown will continue “until we eradicate the little that still remains of the gangs”.
