COVID-19 and the Bidoon in Kuwait many things without a valid security card issued by the Central Apparatus and to receive one and access state services, the Bidoon must agree that they have false identities. 10 Many families have refused to renew their security cards as a form of resistance to erasure and criminalisation, jeopardising their right to nationality. 11 However, the consequences to this resistance have resulted in a lack of access to many benefits. Even with a valid security card, there are still many impediments to access. Many policies and practices in governmental institutions restrict services to the Bidoon. For example, valid security cards are not issued for long periods of time; they are often renewed for periods ranging from three months to one year. 12 This precarity in legal status makes their access to basic services challenging. For instance, many employers prefer employees with long-term lawful status to avoid interruptions and legal problems arising from temporary status. 13 As a result, many employers refuse to hire Bidoon employees. 14 This temporary status entails a constant struggle for renewals in order to access necessary services. This example reflects the day-to-day lived experiences of the Bidoon, causing serious psychological damage because they are under the constant stress of losing their ability to sustain a livelihood. One of the devastating impacts of these practices against the Bidoon has been an increase in Bidoon suicides over the last few years, making it an urgent epidemic that must be addressed. 15 A Housing Conditions The majority of the Bidoon occupy ‘popular’ houses in two impoverished and underdeveloped cities: Taima and Sulaibiyah. 16 Both cities are located on the outskirts of the Kuwait capital region and city centre where the main suburban areas are located. 17 They have poor infrastructure and broken roads. These houses were constructed cheaply, with grey concrete bricks and without any finishing or painting. 18 Generations of Bidoon families reside in these homes, with siblings and/or small units within large kin-based family, all cramped in one-, two- or three-bedroom houses. When the pandemic hit, transmission between family members was common given that many of them share rooms and have limited space to isolate or distance from each other. 19 Furthermore, like many people during the pandemic, many employed Bidoon families lost their source of income 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ‘Kuwait: Bidoon’, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples <https://minorityrights.org/minorities/bidoon/> (‘Kuwait: Bidoon’); ‘Kuwait Mandate’ (n 8). Conversation with Bidoon activists (Areej Alshammiry, online, April 2021). ibid. See Prisoners of the Past: Kuwaiti Bidun and the Burden of Statelessness (Report, Human Rights Watch 13 June 2011) <https://www.hrw.org/report/2011/06/13/prisonerspast/kuwaiti-bidun-and-burden-statelessness> (‘Prisoners of the Past’). Conversation with Bidoon activists (n 11). Kuwait: Rising Signs of Despair Amongst Bidun Highlight Cruelty of Draft Law (Public Statement, MDE 17/1362/2019, Amnesty International, 21 November 2019) <https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde17/1362/2019/en/>. Popular housing refers to a form of community housing plot made by the government to house people who make low-income for a temporary duration. Kennedy (n 5) 171. Farah Al-Nakib, ‘Revisiting Ḥaḍar and Badū in Kuwait: Citizenship, Housing, and the Construction of a Dichotomy’ (2014) 46(1) International Journal of Middle East Studies 5, 18–19. Conversation with Bidoon activists (n 11). 125