By Elizabeth Warkentin
Most of us take the right to citizenship for granted. It is a fundamental human right after all. In Kuwait, this is, however, is questionable.
In the midst of the vociferous demands for democratic changes that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa in recent weeks, Bidoun-Arabic for "without", as in "without citizenship" – of Kuwait also jumped onto the revolutionary car. At the end of February staged around 1000 Bidoun peaceful protest to demand citizenship and basic human rights. Police dispersed demonstrators with rubber bullets and water cannons. Although the Government has promised reforms, is stateless Arabs not yet convinced. Last Friday, a few hundred Bidoun gathered on the street again, only to be shot at with tear gas.
When I worked at a school in Kuwait between 2007 and 2008, I would like to see some of these unfortunate souls on their way to school. Each morning, men, their faces unsmiling, their eyes such as lead, would remain in their dirty galabeyas around a derelict mass of sand and rubble waiting for someone to offer them menial work.
In my first months in Kuwait, I do not have legal status. It took three months to get my civil ID gives me an official residence permit status. Without a civil ID, could not get a mobile phone contract or internet connection, open a bank account or travel outside Kuwait. At times it felt I could hardly go to the toilet without a civil id.
This is the case of the wretched Bidoun, which, despite having lived and died beside the Kuwaitis generations live their entire lives without this document. Conversely, my Canadian colleagues and I got a civilian ID within a period of three months, but griped about on a daily basis, how long it took and which gene was. Little I knew then about stateless Arabs regrettable situation.
Approximately 100,000 Bidoun are descendants of nomadic herders, not be registered for the citizenship of the Union, when the independent State was formed in 1961. Human rights organisations say Bidoun either understands the significance of citizenship or, where their traditional nomadic lifestyle, preferred not to belong to a country. Others were living outside the city walls or were illiterate, so that they did not or could not apply for nationality. The majority has, however, legal documents, proving the settlement in Kuwait earlier than 1961.
However, Bidoun remains stateless, and as such is not in a position to get the correct jobs, Register their children in public schools or have access to Kuwait's free health care system. Not being registered as citizens or legal residents also means they cannot hire or buy real estate, travel outside the country or obtain birth, marriage and death certificates. In other words, they do not exist.
Share a common language and culture, Bidoun indistinguishable from those of Kuwaiti citizens. Apart from the fact that in contrast to the Kuwaitis, most living in squalid, tin-roof shacks, a jarring contrast an oil-rich nation, where the majority live in ostentatious luxury.
In the mid-1980s, after decades of enjoy the same rights as citizens, the Government decided to declare the Bidoun "illegal residents", claiming they are actually citizens of neighbouring countries to conceal their identity to deceive the Government and reap the benefits of its generous welfare system. It is hard to imagine anyone could believe something so ridiculous, let alone to say.
Kuwaitis wonder, why not just leave the Bidoun, therefore they spend their lives with nothing. With no nationality, no passports, how can they leave? Where will they go?
How dispiriting must be excluded and invalid as Bidoun. To be denied citizenship must be like being denied a life.
Citizenship is a right not a privilege. Democratic Nations in the world should work with the United Nations to put pressure on Kuwait to guarantee, to be granted Kuwaiti nationality, Bidoun.
-Elizabeth Warkentin contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
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