Imagine being stateless.

I never had a passport before 1980.

Then 40 years later, your hard-won citizenship is marketed to buyers thousands of miles away.

If you want to travel overseas, you travel with a piece of paper.

It was humiliating because I went to Australia for my education,

but I was traveling with a paper.

This is the BBC World Service and Island Nation of Vanuatu.

It's very hot, it's very humid, and it's crowded.

A loudspeaker serves as an audio notice board. your note is bought. The way you can track this stuff to the south of the market cycle of seine.

Women and children are sleeping under the trestle tables, heaving with the fresh fruits and vegetables they've brought to sell here and the colours are bright

but the atmosphere is downbeat making a good living here isn't easy for the rural population.

Most Niv Anawatu, as they're known, are scattered over hundreds of miles of ocean.

Many of these people at the market will be from outer islands.

They'll sleep in this market until their crops are sold.

They make the long boat journey home.

I'm Vivian Noonis and this is the BBC World Service.

Last week we explored the changing face of citizenship through investment.

Today we follow the trail of a passport and have made the long journey to Port Villa.

We'll hear how the citizenship scheme has angered many and proved a lucrative business for a few.

The idea of a people that only a generation ago were stateless in their own homes suddenly

are selling that statehood to people merely for cash,

that sticks in people's craw.

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