Statelessness and Microfinance 95 afford alimentation and basic hygienic needs, 80% of them have no money for any other expenses; moreover, 54% inhabit illegal settlements.10 The application of a microfinance programme in a more developed country provides a number of obstacles. The bureaucracy involved in establishing a formal enterprise often requires official documentation and identification which forces stateless participants outside the formal economy. Furthermore, due to the higher capital requirements in Serbia compared to poorer countries, loans would have to be significantly larger. The Kiútprogram in Hungary targeted non-stateless Roma and found that the increased bureaucracy and competition in the market resulted in a loss of 30% of invested capital in the initial periods of the programme.11 Moreover, the necessary focus on the informal economy poses the problem of how feasible it is to establish a MFI that would finance businesses circumventing the legal and tax system of the country. The Bidoon in Kuwait are another stateless community who may benefit from access to microfinance.12 The conditions faced by the Bidoon pose a number of challenges to the operation of any such programme. The majority of the population of Kuwait ‘treat Bidoon as a lower grade of human being’.13 Discrimination is widespread and harassment is commonplace. Unemployment is prevalent among the Bidoon community. Street vendors selling vegetables informally are often arrested and fined. Even when the Bidoon find formal employment in the private sector they are unprotected by employment laws. Therefore, they are frequently abused by business owners; forced to work long hours for low pay. On occasion, the Bidoon are able to establish their own formal enterprises, however the business must be registered under the name of a Kuwaiti citizen. This leaves the Bidoon open to abuse.14 The constraints placed on the entrepreneurial activities of the Bidoon pose a number of challenges to the implementation of a microfinance programme. 10 11 12 13 14 G Pudar ‘Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia’ (UNHCR 2011). ‘Social Microcredit, Self-Employment and Roma Inclusion: A Way Out - Lessons of the Kiútprogram, an Inclusive Social Microcredit Project’ (Kiútprogram 2012). <http://www.kiutprogram.hu/index.php/en/documents-f> accessed 24 October 2013. For more detailed information on the Bidoon see Sebastian Kohn ‘Stateless in Kuwait: Who are the Bidoon?’ 24 March 2011 <http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/ stateless-kuwait-who-are-bidoon> accessed 24 October 2013 or Dana Affleck ‘Being ‘Without’: Who Are the Bidoon of Kuwait?’ 9 July 2012 <http://rightnow.org.au/topics/ asylum-seekers/being-%E2%80%9Cwithout%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-who-are-the -bidoon-of-kuwait/> accessed 24 October 2013. Interview with a member of the Bidoon community, who wishes to remain anonymous (14 August 2013). Ibid. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 90-97