Suzan El Tahhan Bidoons: A Statelessness Plight in Kuwait ‫مجلة الدراسات القانونية واالقتصادية‬ as a travel document, or driver's license, to obtain services.38 Putting into consideration that most of them cannot issue such forms of identification, ending up deprived of all services. Another consequence of the fact that stateless persons cannot obtain travel documents is that they would be prevented from pursuing higher education or accessing specialized medical care abroad as their Kuwaiti national peers. The civil identification cards issued to citizens, in addition to legal non-Kuwaiti residents, are the only form of identification accepted for purchasing property, enrolling in most school, and being legally registered as an employee. Instead, the Bidoons committee has issued security cards to 106,000 Bidoons. These cards help protect Bidoons from deportation, which is a consequence for violating the country's residency laws.39 Unregistered Bidoons include individuals whose security cards were refused to be renewed by the Bidoons committee, and those whose cards applications have been denied at the outset. Bidoons who lack valid security cards cannot obtain other civil documentation which makes them live in self-imposed confinement, fearing arrest and detention. With such lack of identification, Bidoons face difficulty accessing social services, such as health care and others.40 Despite repeated promises, there has been little progress on the naturalization of Bidoons. In 2000, the government has passed a law that permitted the naturalization of Bidoons and their descendants, if they can prove that they were registered in 1965 38 NASRA M SHAH, MAKHDOOM A SHAH, AND JAAFAR BEHBEHANI, Health Policy and Planning (Impact Factor: 3.47), Department of Community Medicine and Behavioral Sciences, Kuwait University, 09/1996; DOI: 10.1093/heapol/11.3.319, Source: PubMed, Research Reprt: Ethnicity, nationality and health care accessibility in Kuwait: a study of hospital emergency room users, available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13138473_Ethnicity_nationality_and_health_care_accessibility_in_Kuwai t_A_study_of_hospital_emergency_room_users 39 Human Rights Watch, Prisoners of the Past: Kuwaiti Bidoons and the Burden of Statelessness, 13 June 2011, P.4, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4df7191b2.html [accessed 23 December 2015] 40 Ibid P.5 18