At the point of losing their asylum support following refusal of their asylum claim, many interviewees were able to mitigate their destitution, at least temporarily, by staying with friends.290 In many cases such help was provided for many months or even years, although by its nature it remained precarious and often placed great strain on the personal relationships involved. However, the need for such reliance stems from the lack of access for stateless persons to relevant social and economic rights. Case study: Kuwaiti Bidouns refused asylum Ten Kuwaiti Bidouns were interviewed and thus formed a sizeable proportion of the participants in the study. In Arabic, Bidoun means “without”, reflecting the fact that this group is excluded from Kuwaiti nationality. They face systemic discrimination in Kuwait.291 Many Kuwaiti Bidouns are granted asylum in the UK. However, caselaw and guidance indicates that decision-makers on asylum claims should draw a distinction between “documented” and “undocumented” Bidouns on the basis that a significant number of Bidouns have been provided with social security cards between 1996 and 2000, which facilitates some access to social entitlements.292 However, it emerged from the research that this guidance was not consistently or correctly applied and that as a result some participants, despite evidence that they were in fact “undocumented” Bidouns, were not recognised as refugees. This appeared to be reinforced by the failure or inability of the UK Border Agency to enforce removal which in turn resulted in lengthy time spent in limbo, at risk of destitution. The case of Ghanim,293 aged 67, raised common issues for those Bidouns who are not granted asylum. After he claimed asylum he was initially accommodated in Dover and then moved to Birmingham. He was given £50 per week to live on. But this was stopped after his asylum appeal was dismissed in April 2006. In June that year he and his wife, who was also in her late 60s, were evicted from their accommodation. Ghanim explained: “My wife and I had nowhere to go so we went and sat in the bus station for 5 hours. Then a man came up to me and said that he had seen us there earlier and now we were still there so he asked me what the problem was, what was my story? I explained our situation and he immediately invited us to come and stay with him at his house where we remained for three months.” Soon after this Ghanim was admitted to hospital with serious kidney problems and was operated on. After his discharge from hospital, the Refugee Council made an application for section 4 support which was granted in November 2006. However, after further 290 Participants 5, 6, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 27, 28, 30, 35 and 36. 291 See Human Rights Watch, Prisoners of the past: Kuwait Bidun and the burden of statelessness, available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2011/06/13/prisoners-past and Refugees International and Open Society Foundations, Without Citizenship: Statelessness, Discrimination and Repression in Kuwait, 2011, available at: www.refugeesinternational.org/sites/default/files/120511_Kuwait_With_ Citizenship_0.pdf. 292 HE (Bidoon - Statelessness - Risk of Persecution) Kuwait v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, CG [2006] UKAIT 00051, United Kingdom: Asylum and Immigration Tribunal / Immigration Appellate Authority, 21 June 2006, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/ docid/46836aa0d.html. 293 It was not possible to obtain a full paper file for this participant but factual aspects were checked on CID as well as the limited papers available. in the United Kingdom 99