2019
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
1(1)
After state formation, the Kuwaiti government naturalised many people that
lived within its borders but left out the Bidoon. 4 In 1986, the Government
implemented policies that rendered the Bidoon unlawful residents after a secret
decree, stripping them of access to significant rights and benefits including state
welfare, education and employment. 5 The restrictions banned the Bidoon from
participating in many economic and social activities and resulted in mass layoffs
of Bidoon employees from government and private jobs, creating severe
impoverishment for many families. 6
It is clear that, since 1986, the Bidoon have lived in difficult conditions. These
conditions were aggravated when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The situation of
the Bidoon highlights how stateless people are among the most vulnerable
populations during any global crisis.
HOW PRE-PANDEMIC CONDITIONS HAVE BEEN MAGNIFIED DURING
COVID-19
After the liberation of Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion in 1991, a series of
committees and administrative bodies were founded, including the Central
Committee for the Affairs of Illegal Migrants in 1993, the Executive Committee
for the Affairs of Illegal Migrants in 1996 and the Central System to Resolve the
Situation of Illegal Residents in 2010 (‘Central Apparatus’). 7 These administrative
bodies were ‘presumably’ created to solve the ‘Bidoon problem’. However, from
the perspective of the Bidoon, this created more problems than solutions. The
Bidoon were banned from accessing public education, assigned false foreign
identities and heavily policed.
Officials in the Central Apparatus coerced the Bidoon into denouncing their
rights to nationality by requiring them to sign agreements acknowledging foreign
nationalities in order to access basic services. 8 These oppressive actions include
psychological pressure tactics inflicted on the Bidoon in their day-to-day life. As
the former Assistant Undersecretary for Nationality and Passports Affairs in the
Ministry of Interior, Mazen Al-Jarrah, admitted in a television interview, ‘I must
pressure them psychologically and socially to get them to reveal their true
nationalities’. 9 This pressure includes making access to any benefits nearly
impossible without the approval of the Central Apparatus. The Bidoon cannot do
4
5
6
7
8
9
Beaugrand (n 2) 22.
Susan Kennedy, ‘The Stateless Bedoun in Kuwait Society: A Study of Bedouin Identity,
Culture and the Growth of an Intellectual Ideal’ (PhD Thesis, The University of Adelaide
2016)
30–31
<https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/119698/2/02whole.pdf>;
Beaugrand (n 2) 107.
Aziz Abu-Hamad, The Bedoons of Kuwait: Citizens without Citizenship (Report, Human
Rights Watch August 1995) <https://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Kuwait.htm> (‘The Bedoons
of Kuwait’).
Claire Beaugrand, ‘Framing Nationality in the Migratory Context: The Elusive Category of
Biduns in Kuwait’ (2014) 6(3) Middle East Law and Governance, 186 n 37.
Amnesty International, ‘Kuwait: Mandate of Abusive Government Body in Charge of
Stateless Bidun People Extended’ (Media Release, 24 November 2020)
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/kuwait-mandate-of-abusive-governmentbody-in-charge-of-stateless-bidun-people-extended/> (‘Kuwait Mandate’).
Interview in Al-Majlliss Television, | ﻗﻨﺎة اﻟﻤﺤﻮر اﻹﻟﻜﺘﺮوﻧﯿﺔAl Mehwar Channel, ‘ اﻟﻠﻮاء:ﻧﻘﻄﺔ ﻧﻈﺎم
( ’اﻟﺸﯿﺦ ﻣﺎزن اﻟﺠﺮاحYouTube, 29 November 2015) <https://youtu.be/Ds1As5si29s>.
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