The Arabic word, “bidun,” meaning “without” and short for “bidun jinsiya” (without citizenship), is used to denote longtime residents of Kuwait who are stateless. The estimated number of bidun in Kuwait ranges from 90,000 to 130,000, less than half the number who resided in the country prior to Iraq’s invasion in 1990. Those who remain are subject to systematic discrimination, and their future is uncertain at best.

Denied the right to register officially the birth of a child, a marriage, or death, they are relegated to a bureaucratic no man’s land. Their children are barred from free education in public schools. They are not permitted to own property, or register vehicles in their names, nor obtain a telephone line or even a SIM card for a cellular telephone, transactions that require civil identification. Healthcare offered free of charge to Kuwaiti citizens is withheld from them. On their driving licenses they are characterized as “illegal residents.” Their passports were previously a distinctive grey. Now the same color as a citizen’s passport, they include a remark indicating that they can only be renewed with the approval of the Minister of Interior, marking the holders as stateless. While valid for five years, they are good for only one journey and must then be renewed.

For many years the bidun enjoyed the same services and privileges as citizens. Official documents, such as birth certificates and employment contracts, identified them as Kuwaitis. Bidun made up the bulk of the armed forces and police and served their country loyally. A member of Kuwait’s parliament pointed out the irony: “We trust the bidun to drive tanks, but not cars.” They believed that eventually the government would confer citizenship upon them. After 1985, however, the government took a number of steps to disabuse them of this belief and strip them of their identity.

Bidun were dismissed from positions in the public sector, their children were barred from schools, both public and private, and driving licenses were revoked. They could no longer carry passports (known as Article 17 passports) unless they left the country and renounced the right to return.

Following the liberation of the country in 1991, after Iraq’s invasion and occupation, the government stepped up its efforts to strip the bidun of their rights. Bidun were fired en masse from their positions in the military and police, and only a small fraction was rehired. Those dismissed could not collect their severance pay unless they produced a passport, either Kuwaiti or foreign, or left the country. Tens of thousands of bidun who had fled the country during the occupation, or were forced to the leave the country subsequently were not allowed to return.

By furnishing a foreign passport, bidun would have been able to obtain a five-year residence permit, hold a drivers’ license and enjoy the benefits of any other guest worker in the country. In desperation, many bidun paid hefty fees to obtain counterfeit passports from countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea and the Dominican Republic. There have been instances when bidun attempting to travel with forged documents had them confiscated. Forcibly returned to Kuwait, the country had no choice but to readmit them. Paradoxically, there are now 15 bidun in prison awaiting deportation, some with forged passports and others with no form of identification at all. They can not be deported, because no country will take them in, and so they languish in jail cells.

In Kuwait, nationality is considered a matter relating to sovereignty, and by the country’s Judiciary Organization Law of 1959, courts can not consider sovereign actions of the state. Accordingly, the bidun can not petition the courts to have their citizenship claims adjudicated.

The country’s Nationality Law defined Kuwaiti nationals as “persons who were settled in Kuwait prior to 1920 and who maintained their normal residence there until the date of the publication of the law (May 21, 1959). It was, coincidentally, in that year, that a three-meter high mud brick wall (a first wall had been built in 1770 and a second, in 1815) was erected around the city to keep out raiding bedouin.

Approximately one third of the population was recognized as bone fide citizens, the founding families of the country. Another third was naturalized and granted partial citizenship rights. The remaining third was classified as “bidun jinsiya.” The citizenship law has been amended 14 times since Kuwait gained its independence in 1961, and with almost every amendment it has become increasingly restrictive. For example, the 1959 law (Article 3) granted citizenship to children of a Kuwaiti mother when the father was unknown, or paternity could not be proven, or the father’s nationality was unknown, or he was stateless. When amended in 1980 Decree No. 100/1980) the mention of unknown nationality and statelessness was omitted.

Citizenship in Kuwait is passed on to children through their fathers, but not their mothers. Consequently, the children of a Kuwaiti woman and a bidun husband are also bidun. The vagaries of Kuwait’s citizenship law tend to undermine the family. A child of a divorced Kuwaiti woman or a widow can acquire citizenship, so that there is an incentive for couples to divorce to guarantee their children’s future. Several legal experts in Kuwait are of the opinion that the country’s nationality law is in need of revision. More liberal nationality laws of other Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, where long-time residents can apply for citizenship, limit the problem of statelessness. Laws in Algeria and Tunisia, which grant mothers the right to pass on their nationality to their children, could serve as models for revisions in Kuwait’s law.

Many bidun are descendants of Bedouin tribes that roamed freely across the borders of present day Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq, for instance, the Shammar and cAneza. Either because their ancestors failed to understand the importance of citizenship, or, given their centuries-old nomadic way of life, demurred at the idea of belonging to any one country, or because they were living outside the city walls, in the desert, or “badiya,” and often illiterate, they could not furnish adequate proof that they were settled in the country and were consequently classified as stateless. Even today, statelessness in Kuwait is a matter of being outside, and in a very literal sense of the word. The majority of the bidun live in virtual exile, in squalid housing projects in Sulaibiya and Jahra, in Ahmadi and the rundown neighborhood of Jilib ash-Shuyukh. They are nevertheless indistinguishable from citizens. They share a common language and culture. It is common that families comprise members who are citizens and others who are bidun.

In June 2000, the National Assembly passed a law requiring the bidun to register with the government to begin a process that would allow some of them to be documented as citizens. The last step in this process entails DNA testing to prove that family members are in fact blood relatives. Those who failed to register would be considered illegal residents at risk of being deported.

There is no denying that the bidun are victims of prejudice. More than a decade after Kuwait’s liberation from Iraqi occupation, there are lingering suspicions about their loyalty. Specifically, they are suspected of having aided and abetted the Iraqi occupation. At the same time, there is the belief that many are not in fact stateless but instead immigrants from Syria, Iraq and Iran who destroyed their national passports to enjoy the generous privileges and services previously available to the stateless. Nevertheless, numerous bidun are able to demonstrate convincingly their families’ presence in the country for several generations, and their applications for citizenship deserve consideration.

Feelings of distress, frustration, resentment, disappointment and anger among the bidun are palpable. An older generation of bidun, who once served or still do in the country’s military and police force, are reluctant to protest their plight too strenuously. Their children however are more impatient. Unable to afford the cost of tuition, they can not contemplate a higher education. Barred from employment in the public sector, they are constrained to accept work that is poorly paid and intermittent. Many are reluctant to marry, because they can not support a family and fear that their children could face the same hardships. The suicide rate among bidun is reportedly high.

There is perhaps greater interest in the plight of Kuwait’s stateless now than there has been in many years. In July 2006, for example, Kuwait’s parliament created a committee to address the issue of the bidun. The bidun themselves and sympathetic citizens have formed a Popular Committee for Support of the Bidun.

In January this year, the Ministry of Interior announced that it would issue driving licenses to bidun. (The ministry had banned the issuing or renewal of driver’s licenses to bidun in 1997, with the exception of those in the military or police.) Unfortunately, however, the holder is identified as an illegal resident. Loath to acquiesce to such a characterization, many if not most bidun refuse to apply for one, preferring to run the risk of driving with one long expired. More constructively, the government recently announced that 100 places in Kuwaiti universities would be designated for students who are bidun, and earlier this year the parliament approved a law granting citizenship to 2,000 bidun. A list of those to be granted citizenship will be approved in October.

There is general agreement that the humanitarian consequences of statelessness should be addressed immediately, leaving the contentious issue citizenship rights to a later date. At the same time, however, many Kuwaitis acknowledge that the problems associated with statelessness will grow, as the number of bidun increases. There is concern that young, disenfranchised bidun might resort to crime, turn to alcohol and drugs, and subscribe to extremist ideologies. A mother with bidun children lamented, “These young people are wasting their lives.” Accordingly, it would be in the best interests of the state to find a just and equitable solution to the plight of the stateless sooner rather than later.

Refugees International recommends:

The Government of Kuwait:

• Treat all persons residing in its territory lawfully, in accordance with international human rights law.

• Immediately undertake full evaluation of unresolved bidun cases, with intent to grant citizenship for qualifying individuals and families, while ensuring timely and transparent process for resolution of status.

• Conduct thorough review of nationality law and amendments.

• Revise nationality law to bring it into conformity with more progressive legislation in the region, particularly in connection with the equal right of women to pass on nationality to children.

• Become signatory to the 1954 Convention relating to the status of stateless persons and the 1961 Convention on the prevention of statelessness.

• Amend law barring nationality from court jurisdiction to allow access to due process.

• Refrain from the use of the term “illegal resident.”

• Fulfill promise to naturalize 2,000 bidun, not including other applicants for citizenship, in 2007.

• Provide social services equitably and without discrimination to all residents.     

• Provide full range of civil registry services, including birth, marriage, and death, to all residents.

• Refrain from arresting or detaining stateless persons solely on the basis of their being stateless.

• Include tuition fees for children of bidun in the national budget.

• Request training from the UN High Commissioner for refugees on appropriate mechanisms for granting status to stateless persons.

• Incorporate instruction on human rights and tolerance at all levels of educational curriculum.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

• Translate and publish survey of bidun in Kuwait.

• Actively and visibly support government efforts to find solutions to unresolved cases and durable solutions for failed ones.

Diplomatic Corps:

• Encourage diplomats in Kuwait to visit bidun communities and present findings and recommendations to the Kuwaiti executive.

United States:

• Urge new ambassador to press for immediate resolution of this human rights and humanitarian issue.

• Encourage the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to issue a report focusing solely on the stateless in Kuwait.