These essential workers include security guards, checkout assistants and other frontline workers. Marlene Schiappa, junior interior minister in charge of citizenship, said over 16,000 people had applied for a French passport over the past year under a special scheme.

She noted that the scheme sped up the application process for workers in essential services, allowing them to apply for citizenship after just two years in France, instead of the usual five.

Of these, 12,012 became French, she said.  Among the other categories of employees eligible for the scheme are garbage collectors, home-care providers and nannies.

‘These frontline workers were there for the nation. It is normal that the nation makes a gesture in their favour,’ Schiappa said in a statement.

In 2020, a total of 61,371 people got French citizenship.

Back in September, the interior ministry invited people who “actively contributed” to the fight against the novel coronavirus, such as healthcare professionals, cleaners, childcare, and shop workers, to apply for fast-track naturalisation

According to the office of Marlene Schiappa, a junior minister for citizenship, of the nearly 3,000 people who responded, 74 had already obtained citizenship and 693 more were in the final stage of becoming citizens.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Ms Schiappa said “Foreign workers gave their time and swung into action for all of us during the Covid crisis. It is now up to the Republic to take a step toward them.  Health professionals, cleaning ladies, childcare workers, checkout staff: They all proved their commitment to the nation, and it is now the turn of the republic to take a step towards them”