Decided to inform the Immigration Office yourself

Víðir Reynisson, MP for the Social Democratic Alliance and chairman of the General Affairs and Education Committee, says one has decided to inform the Immigration Office of the status of Oscar Bocanegra’s case in terms of his application for Icelandic citizenship. He says he has not discussed the decision with the government or the committee members of the General Affairs Committee and has therefore made the decision itself.

This is stated by Víðir in a conversation with mbl.is, after response to the criticism of Snorri Másson, the MP MP, to his working methods.

« This is a decision I made and thought it most sensible at this point and still feels, » says Víðir. He claims to stand that decision. He considered it appropriate to inform the Immigration Office on the matter when it was clear that there was an overwhelming likelihood that Oscar would get citizenship in Iceland.

Vidir says his decision has been both right for Oscars’ interests, not having to be expelled to come back after two weeks or so. Tax money would also be bad to go into such extensive operation, in fact without reason.

Mbl.is reported yesterday that a decision had been made to postpone Oscar Bocanegra’s departure because he was likely to be granted citizenship.

Answers Snorri Másson’s criticism

Snorri Másson, who is also a committee member of the General and Education Committee of the Althingi, presented a protocol at a meeting of the committee. There he commented on Víðir’s working methods. He criticized the political intervention of the case.

Snorri pointed out that elected representatives were placed in an unreasonable position to have to take a stand on individual cases, or to case applications for the granting of citizenship.

Vidir says Snorri has the full right to have an opinion on how things are made and submit this booking. He does not, however, say that in the booking, but that it is natural in politics that people have the opinion on the matter.

Oscars’ case has been under consideration in the media recently. Snorri states in his booking that the media coverage is often intended to affect the actions of the authorities.

Matters become political in Parliament

Vidir says that when an individual applies for citizenship through parliament, the person in question is in the political way. « This will always be politics when elected political representatives are assigned a task, » says Víðir.

He says the Constitution states that no one will be an Icelandic citizen except by law and that elected representatives must decide if it should be amended. Citizenship can be applied through the Immigration Office but also through parliament and in his opinion, issues will always be political in parliamentary debate.