COMMENTARY COVID-19 AND THE BIDOON IN KUWAIT: PANDEMIC OR STATELESSNESS VULNERABILITIES? AREEJ ALSHAMMIRY * TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................................................................................... 123 How Pre-Pandemic Conditions Have Been Magnified During COVID-19 ......... 124 A Housing Conditions .................................................................................. 125 B Employment ............................................................................................. 126 C Education .................................................................................................. 126 D Mental Health ........................................................................................... 127 Recent Debates on the Status of the Bidoon ......................................................... 128 INTRODUCTION This piece outlines some of the conditions that the Bidoon (Kuwait’s stateless population) have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1 As a former stateless Bidoon and a researcher settled in Canada, I have utilised my community connections in Kuwait to inform my writing. The information in this article is gathered from speaking with at least eight Bidoon activists and stateless persons. I chose to keep their names anonymous for their safety. This work would not be possible without their contributions. The exact number of the Bidoon is unavailable due to the contested nature of the statistics provided by the government. However, differing sources agree that this population is currently over 100,000 in Kuwait, excluding those who have migrated or have lived in exile since the 1990s. 2 The Bidoon are indigenous to the Arabian Peninsula but were made stateless after the formation of the Kuwaiti state in the 1960s. The in situ stateless are prohibited from accessing many social services (including public education, proper healthcare, employment, documentation, subsidies and pension plans) and other basic human needs offered to citizens. 3 The consequences of such deprivations are more severe for stateless people during a global crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. * 1 2 3 Areej Alshammiry is a research assistant in the office of the Vice President for the Intersections of Gender Signature Area. She is also doctoral student specialising in social justice and international studies. She researches, writes, advocates and consults about statelessness. Her research interests include statelessness, gender, race, class, nationalism and state violence. Through these concepts, she explores the ideological, cultural and material constructions of society in the Gulf region and Canada in her work. Bidoon is short for bidoon jinsiya, which translates to ‘without citizenship’. It is locally used as a category to define the stateless population in Kuwait. It is also used as an ethnic/class identity given its decades of politicised use by the government. Claire Beaugrand. Stateless in the Gulf: Migration, Nationality and Society in Kuwait (I B Tauris 2018) 43. In situ describes the kind of statelessness that is experienced by a person in their own country.