prison walls as stateless individuals (and those sentenced to life in prison will probably never do). Consequently, the examination below is based mainly on the conditions reported by those who have been stripped of their citizenship by the King and the Ministry of Interior and who are not imprisoned. However, many of those who have been stripped of their citizenship by these two authorities were imprisoned earlier during the 2011 uprising in Bahrain. These are dissidents from the Shia Muslim community. The ISIS affiliates who have been stripped of their citizenship were largely already abroad and fighting for ISIS in Iraq or Syria when they had their citizenship revoked by the Ministry of Interior. “those who have felt the consequences of losing Bahraini citizenship the most are dissidents from the Shia population” Therefore, those who have felt the consequences of losing Bahraini citizenship the most are dissidents from the Shia population, including those who have fled the country. For instance, there are several political refugees in the United Kingdom (UK) who have had their Bahraini citizenship revoked. One of them is the founder of a UKbased human rights organisation that exposes human rights violations in Bahrain. He himself left Bahrain fleeing torture after having been imprisoned (Alwadaei 2017). In what follows I discuss some of the consequences that people face as a result of having their citizenship revoked. Right of residence Citizens are entitled to reside in the country where they have their citizenship. They can travel to and from it without restrictions. If their country is a member of a union or a cooperation that has an agreement of freedom of movement between the member states, the citizens are also entitled to the same right of abode in the other member states. Bahrain is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which constitutes five other countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. Citizens have the right to freely travel and reside in the other GCC countries.2 A consequence of citizenship revocation is that those affected lose their right of residence in their country and the freedom of movement in any cooperating countries. Bahrainis who have had their citizenship revoked had to hand in their identification documents such as passports and other ID cards. From the moment a citizen turns into a non-citizen, he is looked upon as a foreigner by the state. He has to apply for a residency permit and is considered an “illegal resident” until he manages to get a residency 2 However, since June 2017, Qatar has been blockaded by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain. They accuse Qatar of intervening in their domestic affairs. Citizens from these three countries risk punishment if they travel to or stay in Qatar (Begum 2017). http://community.apsanet.org/migrationcitizenship/home 30