Bidoon (social class)

The Bidoon, or stateless (Arabic: بدون‎ Bidūn Arabic: بدون جنسية‎, "without nationality"), is a social group in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, particularly Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.[1] They are considered by some regional governments, for instance Kuwait, as foreign nationals or illegal immigrants.[2]

Not to be confused with Bedouin.

Most of Kuwait's Bidoon are Shia Muslims.[3][4][5][6] The Bidoon in Kuwait are denied citizenship because most Bidoon are Shia Muslims.[3][7] The Bidoon issue in Kuwait is largely sectarian,[3][4][5][6] and “overlaps with historic sensitivities about Iraqi influence inside Kuwait”.[8] During the 1980s, the Bidoon constituted 80-90% of the Kuwaiti Army;[9] and until 1990, they still accounted for 80% of the Army.[10]

Kuwait

Sectarian origin

The Bidoon in Kuwait are denied citizenship because most Bidoon are Shia Muslims.[3][4][6] The Bidoon issue in Kuwait is largely sectarian.[4][3][6] Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Bidoon were treated like Kuwaiti citizens and guaranteed citizenship, they had free access to education, health care and all other privileges of Kuwaiti citizens. Four years after the Islamic Revolution, the Bidoon were suddenly reclassified as "foreigners" in the Kuwaiti government's databases and denied Kuwaiti citizenship. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Bidoon formed 80-90% of the Kuwaiti Army.[9]

60-80% of Kuwait's Bidoon are Shia Muslims.[4][3][5] Many Bidoon in Kuwait are pressured to hide their Shia Muslim background due to the sectarian anti-Shia nature of Kuwaiti society.[11] Most of Kuwait's Bidoon are of tribal ancestry.[7][12][13][14] According to scholars, the Bidoon issue in Kuwait “overlaps with historic sensitivities about Iraqi influence inside Kuwait; many who continue to be denied Kuwaiti nationality are believed to have originated from Iraq”.[8]

The Bidoon are generally categorized into three groups: stateless tribespeople, economic migrants and the children of GCC or Iraqi women who married Bidoon men.[15] The stateless tribespeople are those whose ancestors had settled in GCC countries (and Iraq) but were excluded from registration at the time of the respective states' independence.[15] The second group, former citizens of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, frequently abandoned their original nationality to join Kuwaiti and other GCC armed forces and police in the 1960s and 1970s.[16][9][14] The Kuwaiti government preferred to register these people as "Bidoon" rather than to reveal the politically-sensitive recruitment policy in the armed forces and police.[15] At the time, the Bidoon status conferred many economic benefits.[16][15] The third group is composed of the children of women of GCC nationality married to Bidoon men.[15]

Kuwait's Bidoon believe that most stateless people who get naturalized are Sunnis of Persian descent or tribal Saudis, but not Bidoon of Iraqi tribal ancestry.[17]

Human rights violations

According to several human rights organisations, the State of Kuwait is committing ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Bidoon.[18] The Bidoon are banned from obtaining birth certificates and death certificates, they are also banned from working in Kuwait and traveling outside Kuwait.[18] They are not allowed to educate their children in schools.[18] They are not allowed to study in universities.[18] The Bidoon are also banned from obtaining driving licenses.[18] In recent years, the rate of suicide among Bidoon has sharply risen.[18] There are currently 110,729 officially registered Bidoon in Kuwait.[18] According to the Kuwaiti government, only 34,000 Bidoon are eligible for Kuwaiti citizenship and the remaining Bidoon are allegedly foreign nationals.[19]

Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Bidoon were treated like Kuwaiti citizens and guaranteed citizenship, they had free access to education, health care and all other privileges of Kuwaiti citizens.[18] Four years after the Islamic Revolution, the Bidoon were suddenly reclassified as "foreigners" in the Kuwaiti government's databases and denied Kuwaiti citizenship.[18] The Kuwaiti government has engaged in an ethnic cleansing policy against the Bidoon.[18] The government policy is to impose false nationalities (legally ineffective) on the Bidoon.[20]

In 1985, the Bidoon were excluded from the same social and economic rights enjoyed by Kuwaiti citizens as the country needed to isolate them from the rest of the society. The Iran–Iraq War threatened Kuwait's internal stability and the country feared the ambiguous status of the Bidoon, which provides a human pool for Iraqi refugees, draft dodgers and infiltrators to blend into after getting rid of their identity papers.[21] In 1985, the then emir Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah escaped an assassination attempt. Later that same year, the government changed the Bidoon's status from that of legal residents without nationality to illegal residents.[21]

Kuwait recognizes the Bidoon as illegal residents.[2] Human rights organizations have severely criticized Kuwait for its handling of the issue.[18] Many Bidoon do not have birth certificates and driving licenses.[18] They are banned from working and joining universities.[18]

There are 110,729 documented Bidoon. Documented Bidoon are at risk of persecution or breach of human rights.[22]

In June 2011, the Kuwaiti government, in coordination with the Zakat house, launched a scholarship fund to support Bidoon students. The Bidoon currently account for 40% of the Kuwaiti Army.[23]

United Arab Emirates

According to Federal Law No. 17 of the United Arab Emirates Citizenship and Passport Law of Year 1972, any Arab who resided in the Trucial States prior to 1925 is eligible to obtain UAE citizenship.[24] Many stateless people who lived in the UAE have failed to obtain Emirati passports, either because they have failed to demonstrate that they lived in the region prior to 1925, their roots cannot be traced back to the tribal region, or because they arrived to the region after 1925. Stateless are generally considered immigrants from Baloch or Iranian origin by the UAE. The UAE has also deported some Bidoon people after the Arab Spring.[25] Although they are not considered Emirati citizens, their status and residence in UAE is legalized. Stateless who are not able to obtain any passport are offered the Comorian passport for free through a government initiative for a citizenship by investment deal worth million of dollars with the government of Comoros and enjoy certain citizenship privileges such as subsidized education and access to government jobs in the UAE.[26][27][28]

Saudi Arabia

Bidoon in Saudi Arabia are not considered Saudi citizens and therefore have no benefits. It has revoked citizenship of certain Saudis in the past too, which means these people become Bidoon. However, they have the right to education, free healthcare , and access to jobs that are not exclusive to citizens. Most of these Bidoon are displaced from Yemen or Jordan and Syria. [29][30]

Qatar

Qatar has a number of stateless people living within its borders. Qatar has not helped them out; instead it has imprisoned many of them.[31]

Bahrain

Like neighbouring Qatar, Bahrain also has a number of stateless people, some of whom were dissidents.[32]

Notes
  1. World Migration 2005 Costs and Benefits of International Migration. International Organization for Migration. 2005. p. 53.
  2. "BBC Talk Show about Bedoon (29:07)" (in Arabic).
  3. "Government of United Kingdom". “The Kuwaiti Bedoon`s continued exclusion from nationality can only be understood in the light of the power struggle in a system which was largely based on sectarianism and tribalism within newly emerging emirates striving to assert their legitimacy and authority. The majority of the Bedoon are in fact an extended branch of tribes across the borders between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia and are largely of the Muslim Shi'ite faith”.
  4. "State formation of Kuwait" (PDF). p. 83.
  5. "Exploring the perceptions of informed individuals about the education provisions of Bidoun in Kuwait". p. 13.
  6. "Stateless in Kuwait". The Sunni ruling elite discriminate against the bidoon, many of whom are Shia.
  7. "Government of United Kingdom". 2004.
  8. "Australian Government - Bedoon" (PDF). p. 3.
  9. "Government of United Kingdom" (PDF). p. 4.
  10. "Challenges of Security in Kuwait" (PDF). p. 5.
  11. "The National Project to Resolve the Kuwaiti Bedoon Case (Kuwait) End Statelessness Foundation (Australia) - 1 February, 2019 Report to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Annual Study - Bedoon Indigenous Rights in the Context of Borders, Migration and Displacement" (PDF). p. 23.
  12. Famous victory: the Gulf War. p. 187.
  13. "Kuwait City Journal; The Bedoons: Outcasts in the Land They Served". In the last century, and more so in the early decades of this one, nomadic shepherds, most from Iraq but indifferent to national boundaries, settled in Kuwait. Because they were not rooted in the pursuits of the original families of Kuwait -- fishing, trading or pearl fishing -- they remained apart from the society that formed the modern state. These people became known as Bedoons, from the Arabic word for "without."
  14. "Stateless Bedoons Are Shut Out of Kuwait". The Christian Science Monitor.
  15. "United Kingdom Government - Bedoon" (PDF). p. 7.
  16. "Country Information and Guidance Kuwaiti You Bidoon" (PDF). pp. 26 & 32.
  17. "Is Kuwait Serious About Bedoon Naturalization?".
  18. "The National Project to Resolve the Kuwaiti Bedoon Case (Kuwait) End Statelessness Foundation (Australia) - 1 February, 2019 Report to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Annual Study - Bedoon Indigenous Rights in the Context of Borders, Migration and Displacement" (PDF). p. 7-50.
  19. "صالح الفضالة رئيس جهاز معالجة البدون: لدينا وثائق عن 67ألف يدعون أنهم بدون وهذه بعض الوثائق" (in Arabic).
  20. Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth Avenue 34th Floor, New York. "Report on the Human Rights Watch Report and Response to its Questions and Inquiries" (PDF). Human Rights Watch.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. "United Kingdom Government - Bedoon" (PDF). p. 8.
  22. "United Kingdom Government - Bedoon" (PDF). p. 2.
  23. "Challenges of Security in Kuwait" (PDF). p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 17, 2014.
  24. "UAE Citizenship and Passport Law of Year 1972, Article 17". Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  25. "UAE turns to deportation to silence regime's critics". The Independent. 2012-06-07. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  26. "Citizenship hope for UAE stateless". Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  27. "Special report: Ten years on, the UAE's stateless people reflect on how life has improved and on the challenges ahead". The National. 5 September 2018.
  28. Abrahamian, Atossa Araxia (2018-01-05). "Opinion | Who Loses When a Country Puts Citizenship Up for Sale?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  29. "Immolation in Riyadh exposes plight of Arab stateless in Saudi Arabia". Reuters. 2013-06-26. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  30. "The 'Bidoon' of Saudi Arabia: Generations of discrimination". english.alarabiya.net. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  31. "Doha rejects opportunity at UN to end its persecution of Qatari tribe". Arab News. 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  32. "The new unpeople". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
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