D66 and GroenLinks-PvdA have revived a private members’ bill to allow people who live abroad to hold dual nationality, press agency ANP reported on Wednesday.

The parties want to prevent people whose nationality may be withdrawn by their country of residence from ending up without a passport.

The bill would also enable people who have had to relinquish their nationality involuntarily since 2003 to reclaim it via a simple procedure. Immigrants who have become Dutch would no longer be forced to hand over their native passports.

The Netherlands has extremely strict rules on dual nationality. In order to become Dutch most people have to renounce their original nationality, unless they are married to a Dutch citizen.

Jan Paternotte (D66) and Songüt Mutluer (GroenLinks-PvdA), who are introducing the bill into parliament today, mentioned Bahrain, Russia and Nicaragua, and Kuwait in particular as countries where people have found themselves without a passport.

Germany and Denmark have recently passed a law whereby people can keep their original nationality, leaving the Netherlands and Austria as the only two European countries in which dual nationality is still disallowed.

The bill was welcomed by the Stichting Nederlanders buiten Nederland (SNBN) which has been campaigning for the right to hold dual nationality for years.

“The Netherlands is aeons behind when it comes to dual nationality, putting literally thousands of Dutch people abroad in the danger zone,” SNBN chair Eelco Keij said in a reaction. “We are surrounded by countries that go with the times and see dual nationality for what it is: an integral part of our current society,” he said.

Keij said the change is all the more pressing since the United States is using nationality as a way to “pressure people,” which he said is “unacceptable”. “It is high time Dutch politicians liberate the over a million Dutch people living abroad from the practical, financial, emotional as well as trade barriers that they are facing currently,” he said.