96 colgan and Kolínský If a Bidoon establishes an informal business they are subject to harassment while if they establish a formal enterprise using a Kuwaiti sponsor they risk the national appropriating the profits. A potential solution to this conundrum can be found in Islamic microfinance. Since the Bidoon are unable to own any part of an enterprise, the microfinance institution would retain legal ownership. From a legal perspective the client would appear as an employee of the lending institution. For many of the potential enterprises the expected profits may be quite modest and the requirement to persistently share profits with the lending organisation may deter possible clients. In order to overcome this problem the repayments could follow the principle of Murabaha. This principle sets out a cost plus repayment structure. The microfinance institution purchases the goods required by the entrepreneur, and the repayments cover this initial cost plus a mark-up which will serve to cover the lender’s costs and margins.15 The use of a legal loophole raises the question of how politically feasible it would be to establish such a microfinance programme. However, the Roma and Bidoon are only two extreme examples. For many stateless communities in less developed countries, microfinance is very feasible and often already in practice. There is some evidence suggesting that the Nubians in Kenya, the Hill Tribes in Thailand, and the stateless in the Ivory Coast all already have a degree of access to microfinance programmes. 6 A Promising Means of Development The idea that world stateless communities could benefit from microfinance is very intuitive. At first glance, informal financial services promoting regular savings and small investments seem to perfectly fit their needs. The lack of documentation itself is of minor concern for the operation of microfinance. The unenforceability of the debts due to a lack of traditional capital is overcome by the creation of alternative capital. A much greater challenge is a significant gap (in terms of economic development and bureaucratic level) between the stateless and the majority population, which is present particularly in the cases of European Roma and Kuwaiti Bidoon. This is a challenge for two reasons; i) it would be necessary to establish a programme which would in some way circumvent the law or promote the informal economy and ii) 15 H Ahmed, ‘Financing micro enterprises: an analytical study of Islamic microfinance institutions’ (2002) 9(2) Islamic Economic Studies 27. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 90-97