7 Like members of the community itself, international human rights bodies such as the United Nations and international non-governmental organisations; many citizens and politicians in Kuwait itself, along with the authors of this report, reject this characterisation. It is contrary to Kuwait’s own treaty obligations, and, in the vast majority of cases, the identity of Bidoon as Kuwaiti is an objectively verifiable historical fact. This text proceeds on the basis that there is longstanding, internationally accepted historical and contemporary evidence that a community numbering at least between 90,000 and 110,000 in Kuwait are, in law and practice, stateless. The vast majority have not and do not enjoy the benefits and protections associated with Kuwaiti citizenship since the state’s independence in 1961. Current UNHCR data states, for ‘refugees’, without stating country of origin, that there are 92,020 such persons in Kuwait.4 The Research Directorate of Kuwait’s National Assembly estimated in April 2014 that the number of stateless Kuwaiti was 111,000, or about 10% the size of the recognized population of Kuwaiti nationals.5 Despite repeated requests by United Nations (UN) human rights treaty bodies, the GoK has refused to provide unambiguous data regarding those who would, in analogous circumstances, be considered stateless. On account of this legal status and the social characteristics generally associated with the stateless Bidoon community, this report also accepts, by way of example, the 2004 determination by the United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal.6 It stated that the Tribunal: ‘... would also have no hesitation in identifying the Bedoon in Kuwait as a particular social group within the meaning of Art 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention, [...and that] we are entirely satisfied that by virtue of their extended tribal origins and the existence of a number of legislative and societal measures of discrimination marking them out from others, the Bedoon are a particular social group (PSG). For this reason they can be said to exist independently of, and not be solely defined by, these measures of discrimination.’ If and when the GoK establishes an independent pathway for this Particular Social Group (PSG), in order to assess claims to citizenship that meets international human rights standards, the international community will gradually come to know which residents can be characterised as not having a legal resident status. Until then, this text assumes that all the people currently termed ‘illegal residents’ are a PSG in Kuwait. Proven and internationally accepted historical evidence shows that the vast majority of these people have the strongest ties with no other country save Kuwait. For that reason, this report uses the term ‘stateless Kuwaitis’ to capture their legal status more accurately, and the fact that it stems from a deprivation of their right to Kuwaiti nationality. MAIN FINDINGS AND THE ROADMAP FOR CHANGE To beseech or plead – this image of a man making a plea, depicted on the report cover – represents the fact that Stateless Kuwaitis have, for decades, beseeched the authorities to grant citizenship rights. Their pleading has gone unheeded. The evidence arising from the participants’ testimonies, responses, engagement, and corollary research for this project indicates that the GoK has treated the Bidoon community in a structurally discriminatory manner regarding access to healthcare and livelihood. Participants in this study generally attributed the GoK’s overall, discriminatory, treatment of the stateless community to their legal status and identity, shaped by a process of social marginalisation and othering that has increased during the pandemic. Participants in this study repeatedly asserted that the GoK does not hear or acknowledge their voices. For that reason, this project seeks to provide a platform through which voluntarily anonymous voices of the stateless community in Kuwait can be conveyed. In general terms, project participants expressed the view that the GoK is openly prejudiced against the Bidoon community; that it deprived them of their very identity, livelihoods, and life opportunities. As such, this report ech- United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) - Refugee Data Finder (undated), which shows successive years’ records of persons as having ‘asylum’ in Kuwait, but their country of origin is not specified; https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=uw9DB3 , accessed 7 June 2022. 5 Taken from Amnesty International’s Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 91st session, 29 August-23 September 2022, accessed 29 September 2022, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents?KWT/INT_CRC_NGO_ KWT_50024_E.docx 6 The United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal considered the case of BA and others (Bedoon–statelessness–risk of persecution) Kuwait CG [2004] UKIAT 00256 in an appeal hearing on 11 June 2003 and issued its determination on 15 September 2004. See the hyperlink for more details. 4