Kuwait will start to naturalise some of its stateless citizens in the next two months and will not allow any further demonstrations calling for their citizenship, it was reported Wednesday.
The Gulf state’s stateless – or Bidoon as they are known locally – have been permitted to demonstrate in a bid to persuade the government to grant them citizenship every Friday since Dec 16 but they will no longer be permitted to do so by authorities, AFP reported.
“The ministry will not allow any processions, gatherings or demonstrations [by stateless], regardless of their nature or aims,” Sheikh Ahmad Al Humoud Al-Sabah, Interior Minister, said in a statement.
Kuwait will start to naturalise some of its stateless citizens by the end of January, early February, added Al-Sabah. He gave no further details as to the number of citizens who will qualify for citizenship.
Saleh Al Fadhalah, who heads the government’s central agency for illegal residents, in January said as many as 34,000 stateless people could qualify for citizenship.
Kuwait’s Interior Ministry in December used water cannons and tear gas to disperse hundreds of stateless Arabs who staged a protest against not being permitted to gain access to services and benefits provided to nationals. Authorities later allowed them to demonstrate peacefully.
The Gulf state, which has so far avoided the spillover of the Arab Spring pro-democracy revolts, is estimated to have up to 180,000 bidoon inside the country and possibly 100,000 outside.
Kuwait has long claimed the bidoon have destroyed their original passports to claim Kuwaiti citizenship, which would allow them to claim the Gulf state’s generous welfare benefits.
In a bid to force the bidoon, often descendants of desert nomads, to produce original nationality papers, Kuwait has refused to issue essential documents to most of them, including birth, marriage and death certificates.
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