Suzan El Tahhan Bidoons: A Statelessness Plight in Kuwait ‫مجلة الدراسات القانونية واالقتصادية‬ the number of stateless persons in the Arab region;7 census data listed approximately one-third of Kuwait's population as Bidoons8. Kuwait's Bidoon population originates from three broad categories: “1) those whose ancestors failed to apply for nationality or lacked necessary documentation at the time of Kuwait's independence in 1961; 2) those recruited to work in Kuwait's army or police force during the 1960s who permanently settled in Kuwait, along with their families; and 3) children of Kuwaiti mothers and stateless or foreign fathers”.9 Thus, we must note the difference between "Bidoon" and "Bedouin" ethnicity. Bidoons are the stateless population in Kuwait that includes "Bedouins" as a group belonging to one of the three categories forming the stateless population. A Bedouin is a member of any of the Nomadic Arab tribes. A Bedouin is a Bidoon once belonged to any of the three categories, and most of the time, he would be a person whose ancestors could not apply for Kuwaiti nationality or didn’t have the required documentation at the time of Kuwait's independence in 1961. In the 1960s, there were initial registration efforts in Kuwait. Regardless of the Nationality Law passage, official government data shows that Bidoons were counted among Kuwait's total citizen population. The authorities informed these Bidoons that “they remained eligible to present claims for nationality and issued them temporary documents that identified them as "without nationality"”.10 According to a Kuwait Times article published in November 2006, some Bidoons were granted the Kuwaiti nationality in the last 10 years, however; reliable Abas Shiblak, Statelessness “The lost tribes of Arabia”, Forced Migration Review, FMR32, April 2009, P.38, available at: www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR32/37-38.pdf 8 Human Rights Watch, Prisoners of the Past: Kuwaiti Bidoons and the Burden of Statelessness, 13 June 2011, P.13, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4df7191b2.html [accessed 23 December 2015]. 9 Ibid 10 Human Rights Watch, Prisoners of the Past: Kuwaiti Bidoons and the Burden of Statelessness, 13 June 2011, P.13, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4df7191b2.html [accessed 22 December 2015]. 7 7