MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Man with Falklands ties obtains Argentine ID and seeks it for his partner's daughter

Argentine law provides for the registration of such births, though actual applications have been few and most residents identify with British citizenship.

A man with ties to the Falklands obtained his Argentine national identity document in July and is now pursuing Argentine documentation for his partner's daughter, who was born in the archipelago, according to an account he made public himself.

Jamie Falkland Anderson, a resident of Wales, obtained the document on July 3 at the Argentine consulate in London and chose to publicize his case. A consular source cited by the Argentine daily Clarín said the application succeeded at that office because Anderson “was born in Argentina” and lives in Wales. Anderson, for his part, places his birth in the islands, where he lived and worked for years, including as a foreman and in maintenance, with links to the oil exploration sector. The discrepancy over his place of birth has not been clarified in the accounts published so far.

Anderson moved to Britain in 2000, later returned to the islands and has been in a relationship since 2014 with an islander he had known at school. He said he decided to seek Argentine documentation because of his disagreement with the local government and with parts of the islands' society.

The second application he is pursuing does not rest on a parental link, as he is not the teenager's father, but on her place of birth. According to the same consular source, that procedure is being handled in Argentina rather than London because, under Argentine legal criteria, she was born and lives in national territory, over which the consulate in the United Kingdom has no jurisdiction. That criterion stems from Argentina's position that the islands form part of its territory, which is not shared by the United Kingdom or the islands' government.

The question of what Argentine documentation is available to people born in the islands has precedents. Argentine law provides for the registration of such births, though actual applications have been few and most residents identify with British citizenship.

Sovereignty over the archipelago remains disputed between the United Kingdom, which administers it as an overseas territory, and Argentina, which claims it. In the 2013 referendum, 99.8% of voters chose to retain British status. The issue is going through a tense period: over the past week Argentina's government filed a criminal complaint against five companies linked to the Sea Lion oil project and raised to 60 the number of individuals and companies facing administrative proceedings, while British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the House of Commons his government would be “relentless” in defending the islanders' right to choose to be British.