WUNRN
Refugees International
KUWAIT - BIDUN
"Denied the right to register
officially a birth, marriage, or death, bidun are relegated to a bureaucratic
no person's land. In Kuwait, nationality is deemed a matter relating to
sovereignty and by law courts can not review sovereign actions of the state.
Accordingly, the bidun can not petition the courts to have their citizenship
claims adjudicated. Their children are barred from free education in public
school. They are not permitted to own property, register a vehicle, obtain a
telephone line or purchase a SIM card for a cellular telephone. Healthcare
offered free of charge to citizens is withheld from them. On driving licenses
they are characterized as “illegal residents.” ..... "
"Citizenship in Kuwait is
passed on to children through their fathers, not their mothers. Consequently,
the children of a Kuwaiti woman and a bidun husband are also bidun. A child of
a divorced Kuwaiti woman or widow can acquire citizenship, so that there is an
incentive for couples to divorce to guarantee their children’s future."
07/25/2007
Contacts:
Maureen Lynch and Patrick Barbieri ri@refugeesinternational.org
or 202.828.0110
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.
Many bidun
are descendants of Bedouin tribes such as the Shammar and cAneza that roamed
freely across the borders of present day Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq.
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.
Denied the right to register officially a birth, marriage, or death, bidun are
relegated to a bureaucratic no man’s land. In Kuwait, nationality is deemed a
matter relating to sovereignty and by law courts can not review sovereign
actions of the state. Accordingly, the bidun can not petition the courts to
have their citizenship claims adjudicated. Their children are barred from free
education in public school. They are not permitted to own property, register a
vehicle, obtain a telephone line or purchase a SIM card for a cellular
telephone. Healthcare offered free of charge to citizens is withheld from them.
On driving licenses they are characterized as “illegal residents.” Their
passports, grey in color and valid for five years, must be renewed after only
one journey.
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 and for
years enjoyed the same services and privileges. They share a common language
and culture. It is common that families comprise members who are citizens and
others who are bidun.
Bidun once made up the bulk of the armed forces and police and served their
country loyally. They believed that eventually the government would extend them
citizenship. After 1985, however, the government took a number of punitive
steps to disabuse them of this belief. Bidun were dismissed from their jobs,
children were barred from public and private schools, 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 from Iraqi occupation in 1991, the
government stepped up its efforts to strip the bidun of their rights. They were
fired en masse from 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 or were forced to
the leave subsequently were not allowed to return.
With a foreign passport, bidun would have been able to obtain five-year
residence permits like other guest workers. In desperation, many bidun bought
counterfeit passports from countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea and the
Dominican Republic. There have been instances when bidun traveling with forged
documents were forcibly returned to Kuwait, and the country was compelled to
admit them. There are now 15 bidun in prison awaiting deportation. They can not
be deported, however, because no country will take them in, and so they
languish in jail.
The country’s 1959 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. 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 law has been amended 14 times since and with almost every amendment, it has
become more restrictive. For example, the 1959 law (Article 3) granted
citizenship to children of a Kuwaiti mother when at least one of four
circumstances existed: the father was unknown, paternity could not be proven,
the father’s nationality was unknown, or he was stateless. When amended in
1980, the mention of unknown nationality and statelessness was omitted.
Citizenship in Kuwait is passed on to children through their fathers, not their
mothers. Consequently, the children of a Kuwaiti woman and a bidun husband are
also bidun. A child of a divorced Kuwaiti woman or 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.
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. Many
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 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 are prevented from accessing higher education. Barred
from employment in the public sector, they have 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 would 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 Kuwait’s parliament created a
committee to address the issue of the bidun and earlier this year the
parliament approved a law granting citizenship to 2,000. A list of those to be
granted citizenship will be approved in October. In January, the Ministry of
Interior announced that it would issue driving licenses to bidun. Loath to be
identified as illegal residents, however, many if not most refuse to apply for
one. More constructively, the government recently announced that 100 places in
Kuwaiti universities would be designated for bidun. The bidun themselves and
sympathetic citizens have formed a Popular Committee for Support of the Bidun.
There is general agreement in Kuwait that the humanitarian consequences of
statelessness should be addressed immediately, leaving the contentious issue of
citizenship rights to a later date. At the same time, however, many Kuwaitis
acknowledge that the problems associated with statelessness will escalate.
There is concern that young disenfranchised bidun may resort to crime, turn to
alcohol and drugs, and subscribe to extremist ideologies. It would therefore 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:
United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees:
United Nations Human Rights Bodies:
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