Reference no: EM133380704

Kuwait Offers Stateless Arabs Citizenship In African Country 3,000 Miles Away," Sally Hayden, Business Insider, Nov 14, 2014.

The government of Kuwait is considering granting the Bidoon - a group of stateless Arabs descended from nomadic Bedouins - citizenship in Comoros, an African nation that is nearly 3,000 miles away from their ancestral homeland.

In April, the Kuwaiti government estimated that there were 108,000 pending applications for citizenship from the Bidoon - a group they label "illegal residents."

According to a 2011 Human Rights Watch report, the Bidoon "live under the radar of normal society, vulnerable and without protection." They have historically been denied essential documentation by the Kuwaiti government, limiting their access to education and employment.

The Human Rights Watch report criticized Kuwait for denying citizenship to the Bidoon, saying the country has instead created, "a straightjacket of regulations that leave them in poverty and extreme uncertainty."

Maj. Gen. Mazen al-Jarrah, an official in Kuwait's interior ministry, told a local newspaper Sunday that the citizenship process will begin when a Comoros embassy opens in the Gulf state. The government will offer residence permits to Bidoon who accept the offer, allowing them to remain in Kuwait indefinitely, but forcing them to renounce their claims for Kuwaiti citizenship.

The disputed group are predominantly descendants of the Bedouin people, a desert-dwelling Arabian ethnic group. Most settled in Kuwait decades ago, both before and after the country gained independence in 1961. Their name is derived from the Arabic "bedoun jinsiyya," which literally means "without nationality."

Their attempts to gain official recognition from Kuwait have consistently failed. Many Bidoon have been issued security cards, but those who remain undocumented are denied access to basic medical treatment, housing, documentation, education, and drivers licenses. They can be deported at any time.

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, told VICE News that he first met with Kuwaiti Bidoons right after the first Gulf War, two decades ago. "What this is about is Kuwait not wanting to share its oil wealth with people who should be considered citizens," Roth said.

Comoros is a chain of volcanic islands off the southeast coast of Africa between Mozambique and Madagascar. Sixty percent of its residents live below the poverty line, and 80 percent of those who are employed work in agriculture.

In Kuwait - an oil-rich nation - poverty is non-existent among citizens, although the statistics ignore those who are not considered Kuwaitis.

Roth said that the relationship between Kuwait and Comoros is clear: "It's a wealthy country paying off a poor country in order to offload its citizenship obligations," he said. "Kuwait is a small country, and they're not eager to divide up their financial and economic pie."

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