The stateless (bidun) of Kuwait represent around 10 per cent of Kuwaiti nationals--approximately 100,000 people. With their origins in the tribes of the northern Arabian deserts (spanning today's Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Levant), they are, for most outsiders, indistinguishable from Kuwaitis. After a period when the state condoned the presence of people with an undefined status on its territory, the biduns were classified as 'illegal migrants' in 1986. As such, they were gradually deprived of all their rights: from access to the job market, health and education to the issuing of birth,...
The stateless (bidun) of Kuwait represent around 10 per cent of Kuwaiti nationals--approximately 100,000 people. With their origins in the tribes of t...
The Kuwaiti population includes around 100,000 people - approximately 10 per cent of the Kuwaiti nationals -whose legal status is contested. Often considered `stateless', they have come to be known in Kuwait as biduns, from `bidun jinsiyya', which means literally `without nationality' in Arabic. As long-term residents with close geographical ties and intimate cultural links to the emirate, the biduns claim that they are entitled to Kuwaiti nationality because they have no other. But since 1986 the State of Kuwait, has considered them `illegal residents' on Kuwaiti territory. As a result, the...
The Kuwaiti population includes around 100,000 people - approximately 10 per cent of the Kuwaiti nationals -whose legal status is contested. Often con...