KUWAIT'S STATELESS BIDOON: BACKGROUND AND RECENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 KUWAIT 000558 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/14/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL KU BIDOON SUBJECT: KUWAIT'S STATELESS BIDOON: BACKGROUND AND RECENT PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS REF: A. 2006 KUWAIT 4514 ¶B. 2006 KUWAIT 3078 ¶C. KUWAIT 0053 Classified By: Political Counselor Pete O'Donohue for reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (SBU) Summary. For the past twenty years, Kuwait's 100,000 stateless Bidoon residents have been denied access to the free healthcare, education, and other welfare-state benefits enjoyed by Kuwaiti citizens. Demonstrating a growing social awareness of the plight of the Bidoon and a sensitivity to the wishes of "tribal" voters, the GOK recently issued a resolution to allow free healthcare for Bidoon who are handicapped or younger than eighteen. In addition, Kuwaiti courts recently established a precedent which makes it easier for the Bidoon to obtain marriage and birth certificates. Despite these assurances, the Bidoon issue is unlikely to be fully resolved anytime soon through an expansion of citizenship because many Kuwaiti citizens remain vehemently opposed to increasing the rolls of those eligible for the full benefits of the welfare state. The issue remains one of Kuwait's most difficult and sensitive human rights issues. End summary. -------------- -------------- The Origins of Kuwait's Stateless Arabs (Bidoon) -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Bidoon are people living in Kuwait who assert rights to Kuwaiti citizenship and who deny that they have a right to citizenship in any other country. The term "Bidoon" means "without" in Arabic, because these people are without citizenship. (Note: There is no connection with the Arabic term "bedouin," although some Bidoon are members of bedouin tribes that maintained a nomadic lifestyle in the pre-oil era. End note.) There are approximately 100,000 Bidoon in Kuwait (as compared to 1.1 million Kuwaiti citizens and two million expatriate residents). The Bidoon are the highest profile human rights issue for Kuwaiti politicians and NGOs, though international human rights observers tend to focus more attention on the plight of Kuwait's large population of foreign workers (see Ref A). ¶3. (SBU) When Kuwait gained independence from Britain in 1961, the GOK carried out a campaign to register those who would become citizens in the new state. In the rush to identify legitimate citizens, however, the GOK missed significant numbers because many living in Kuwait were rural �0A;bedouins who either did not learn of the registration requirements or did not understand their importance. Furthermore, in the period before national boundaries were delineated in the 1920s, and on a more limited scale up to the 1960s, nomadic bedouins traveled freely in the area that is now Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and did not have permanent homes. As a result, the same family today will sometimes have members who received Kuwaiti citizenship and members who did not. Despite the historical evidence of this phenomenon, many GOK defenders and Bidoon opponents assert that only a very small number, if any, were actually missed by naturalization efforts and that, instead, most Bidoon are simply economic migrants from Syria, Jordan, and other Arab states who have concealed their origins in an effort to obtain the benefits of the generous Kuwaiti welfare state. -------------- Bidoon Problems Begin -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Until the mid-1980s, the GOK treated Bidoon as lawful residents of Kuwait whose claims to citizenship were under consideration, a status that distinguished them not only from other foreign residents but also from other groups of stateless residents, such as Palestinians from Gaza. At that time, the number of Bidoon was included in the total number of Kuwaiti citizens in the Ministry of Planning's Annual Statistical Abstract, and Bidoon were issued documents identifying them as Bidoon. With the exception of voting rights, they received the benefits of full citizens, including subsidized housing, education, and health services. Bidoon made up the vast majority of the rank and file of all branches of the police and military, and were eligible for temporary passports under article 17 of Kuwait's Passport Law 11/1962. Intermarriage among Bidoon and Kuwaiti citizens was and remains common, and because of the vagaries of the implementation of the Nationality Law it is not unusual for a single family to have members with different citizenship status: original citizenship, citizenship by naturalization, and Bidoon. ¶5. (SBU) In 1985, the government began applying provisions of KUWAIT 00000558 002 OF 004 the Alien Residence Law 17/1959 to the Bidoon and issued a series of regulations stripping the Bidoon of almost all their previous rights and benefits. It is unclear why the government changed its policies so radically, but the sharp 1984/1985 drop in oil prices probably made the GOK more concerned about the number of new citizens eligible for government benefits. More restrictions followed: -- In 1986, the government severely restricted Bidoons' eligibility for travel documents. It also fired government employees not employed by the army or the police who could not produce valid passports, whether issued by Kuwait or another country, and instructed private employers to do the same. -- In 1987, the government began refusing to issue Bidoon new or renewed driver's licenses or register their cars, and began terminating free public education for Bidoon children and instructing private schools to require valid residency permits. -- In 1988, the ban on free public education was extended to universities, and Kuwaiti clubs and civic associations were instructed to dismiss their Bidoon members. -- Also beginning in 1988, statistical data on Bidoon in the government's Annual Statistical Abstract was transferred from the Kuwaiti category to alien population categories. ¶6. (SBU) Restrictions on the Bidoon escalated in the aftermath of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. In September 1990, the Iraqi occupation authorities ordered, under the penalty of death, all noncitizen residents of Kuwait to join the Popular Army, a militia that was formed to support the Iraqi army. Failure to provide evidence of registration with the militia became grounds for immediate imprisonment. Seizing on the fact that a few individual Bidoon joined the Popular Army -- and blaming the Bidoon for the Kuwaiti army's failure to stop the Iraqi invasion, since the Bidoon constituted the overwhelming majority of the armed forces rank and file -- many Kuwaitis came to view all Bidoon as collaborators. Anti-Bidoon policies escalated: -- Bidoon who fled to Iraq found themselves stranded there when the GOK refused to allow the reentry of all but a few. -- Bidoon government employees were dismissed en masse and only a small portion were later rehired. -- Beginning in 1993, Bidoon were also required to pay fees to utilize healthcare centers, although those services remained free for Kuwaiti citizens. -- Bidoon not employed by the government found themselves facing serious obstacles when seeking to register births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. -------------- -- Current situation: Idle hands do the Peninsula Lion's work -------------- -- ¶7. (C) The lack of identification documents makes it nearly impossible for Bidoon today to find new employment. To survive, most Bidoon rely on savings and charities. Some work informally, driving water trucks or taxis. Others have turned to street vending, but this activity is illegal and exposes them to arrest and fines. With so few options to make a living legally, some of the disenfranchised, undereducated, and underemployed single young men who make up the majority of the Bidoon community have turned to crime and some have been susceptible to terrorist recruitment (see Ref B). -------------- -- Recent developments: Healthcare & education -------------- -- ¶8. (SBU) Kuwaiti government policies also limit Bidoon children's access to healthcare and education. Unlike Kuwaiti citizens, since 1993 Bidoon have been required to pay for access to government health clinics. However, on May 21, the Ministry of Health passed a resolution allowing free access to government health clinics for all Bidoon children with a Kuwaiti mother (with free access to end once the child turns eighteen). This resolution also allows free health clinic access for life for all Bidoon deemed handicapped by the Ministry of Health. And in 2005, the GOK began funding private primary and secondary education for Bidoon children. -------------- -- Recent developments: Marriage and birth certificates -------------- -- KUWAIT 00000558 003 OF 004 ¶9. (SBU) Bidoon face difficulty certifying marriages -- including in marriages between a Bidoon and a Kuwaiti -- because the Bidoon member of the couple lacks a civil ID and must obtain a letter from the Ministry of Interior and complete a lengthy security check. Obtaining birth certificates is also difficult for Bidoon couples. If a Bidoon has a child, the hospital will ask for the nationality of the parents. Since they have no nationality, they need to get a "to whom it may concern" letter from the Executive Committee for Illegal Residents (ECIR) instructing the Ministry of Health that it can issue a birth certificate that does not indicate the nationality of the parents. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, the ECIR rarely issues such letters. ¶10. (SBU) However, on March 25, Kuwait's Court of First Instance passed an unprecedented decision to issue a marriage certificate to a Bidoon woman married to a Kuwaiti citizen. Based on this precedent, on April 5 and again on May 26, the Kuwait Court of First Instance affirmed a Bidoon man's rights to receive a marriage certificate and birth certificates for his children. These rulings forced the Justice and Health ministries to recognize these certificates. -------------- -- Recent developments: Resettlement -------------- -- ¶11. (C) In 1993, the GOK demolished the district of Umm al-Haiman (southwest of Kuwait City) and forced its largely Bidoon inhabitants to relocate to the more remote Sulabiya and Taima districts. Musaed Al-Shimmary, a member of the Kuwaiti Bidoon Society who is himself a Bidoon, speculated to PolOff that in the next few years the GOK will expropriate the Sulaibiya and Taima districts to build new housing developments and force its current 70,000 Bidoon residents to relocate again to substandard housing in an even more remote area. -------------- -- Bidoon Proponents and Opponents -------------- -- ¶12. (C) Kuwait's Al Sabah ruling family has traditionally shared the country's oil largess generously with the urban business families. However, the impact of rural, tribal Kuwaitis is now growing rapidly both in terms of population and representation in the National Assembly as these groups seek a proportional share of political leverage in Kuwait. These rural Kuwaitis present a challenge to the urbanites and -- through their presence in parliament -- to the present composition of the GOK (see Ref C). Most Bidoon live in rural areas and granting the 100,000 Bidoon Kuwaiti citizenship and voting rights would accelerate this trend. Rural Kuwaitis are much more inclined to support Bidoon citizenship than are urban Kuwaitis. ¶13. (C) Proponents of granting citizenship to the Bidoon include: -- Tribal and Islamist MPs. Tribes dominate Kuwait's rural, conservative constituencies and would benefit from having 100,000 more supporters, especially if districts were redrawn. -- Shi'a MPs. Shi'a MPs believe that as many as 50% of the Bidoon are Shi'a (Shi'a make up about 30% of Kuwait's citizenship). -- Kuwaitis with Bidoon family members or friends. -- Social activists and Bidoon-rights NGOs ¶14. (C) Opponents include: -- Urban business families and urban leftists. These two groups believe they stand to lose the most by an increase in rural/tribal influence. Some urban business families feel they have been overwhelmed by the granting of citizenship to bedouins who aren't "really" Kuwaiti. Similarly, some urban leftists believe the GOK granted citizenship to bedouins during a 1960s and 1970s naturalization push in order to dilute the opposition in the National Assembly. These urban Kuwaitis see the push to grant citizenship to thousands of Bidoon bedouins as a continuation of these earlier policies and a further threat to their influence. -------------- Comment -------------- KUWAIT 00000558 004 OF 004 ¶15. (C) The new healthcare access and court precedents regarding marriage and birth certificates represent small but significant victories for the Bidoon. However, the Bidoon issue remains highly controversial and contentious. Moreover, further progress in 2009 may be stymied by Kuwait's current economic crisis and long-standing political malaise, both of which render Kuwaitis leery about expanding too dramatically the pool of persons eligible for economic benefits or political rights. In addition, the composition of the parliament elected May 16 -- which somewhat weakened the influence of tribalists and Islamists -- suggests this parliament may have a correspondingly weakened interest in advancing the status of the Bidoon. End comment. ********************************************* ********* For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it ********************************************* ********* JONES