RAMADAN v. MALTA JUDGMENT 17 that it is not inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible. B. Merits 1. The parties’ observations (a) The applicant 66. The applicant insisted that his reason for marrying his first wife had not been to obtain citizenship by fraud, as evidenced by the birth of his son and also by a psychologist’s report, in which his anxiety at the time when he was having marital problems had been noted. He was of the view that the authorities should not simply have relied on the 1998 judgment, but that the matter required a separate independent assessment. He also argued that he could not be blamed for not having informed the authorities about the annulment of his marriage, since annotations of such annulments were entered on the relevant marriage certificate kept in the records of the Public Registry, which was a Government department. Thus, the authorities had been aware of the situation from that very date. Nevertheless, they had acted on the premise that the applicant’s citizenship had remained valid, and had eventually even given his second wife “exempt person status” on that basis. 67. The applicant submitted that depriving a person of citizenship was more sensitive than restricting eligibility for citizenship, and it could not be left to a State’s discretion. Furthermore, any such decision would have to be accompanied by appropriate safeguards and an opportunity for the individual to defend himself. 68. The applicant submitted that at the time of the order depriving him of citizenship, namely 2007, he had established both a private and a family life in Malta. He had been working in Malta and had been married to his wife for more than five years and had two children, as well as a genetic bond with a son from the first marriage. In his view, when he had married for the second time, there had been no threat of his citizenship being taken away from him. Thus, it could not be said that his family life had been created at a time when the persons involved were aware that the immigration status of one of them was such that the continuation of that family life within the host State would be precarious from the outset. 69. The applicant submitted that citizenship was the gateway to several rights, including a right to unrestricted residence; a right to establish a family in Malta; a right to work there, to receive a pension, and so forth. Admitting that he had made no request for any work or residence permits, he submitted that he had no guarantee that he would acquire or be eligible for such permits. He referred to Regulation 12(3) of the Immigration Regulations (Legal Notice 205 of 2004 – see paragraph 37 above). Moreover, such permits would not solve the problem of his statelessness