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400 former Chinese nationals now stateless in Argentina

  Mr. Wei is among the 400 former Chinese citizens who have had their Argentinian passports revoked. [Photo/weibo.com]

  Officials with the Chinese embassy in Argentina are said to be in contact with lawyers in Argentina about the possibility of assisting around 400 former Chinese nationals who now find themselves "without a country," reports chinanews.com.

  The group of roughly 400 former Chinese nationals living in Argentina are now stateless after becoming embroiled in a fraud case which has ultimately left them without citizenship.

  A woman acting as an agent with the courts in Cordoba promised to help around 800 people fast-track their naturalization processes to become Argentinian citizens.

  However, it's now been discovered the court clerk was faking signatures of court officials to get the passports authorized and the naturalization process completed.

  As such, the roughly 400 former Chinese citizens have had their naturalizations revoked and their Argentinian passports revoked.

  But because China doesn't allow dual citizenship, they all had to give up their Chinese citizenship, meaning they're all stateless.

  A number of them have now filed an appeal to Argentina's high-courts to restore their Argentinian citizenship. "They do not intend to leave Argentina because many of them are rooted in the country and they have nowhere to go as they are not Chinese citizens anymore," said a lawyer working with the former Chinese citizens.