History Kuwait has the largest stateless population in the entire region. Most stateless Bedoon of Kuwait belong to the northern tribes, especially the
Al-Muntafiq tribal confederation. The linguist Bruce Ingham studied the northern tribes in Kuwait in the mid 20th century. A minority of stateless Bedoon in Kuwait belong to the
'Ajam community. Under the terms of Article 4 of the
Kuwait Nationality Law, the Bedoon in Kuwait are eligible for Kuwaiti nationality by naturalization. In practice, it is widely believed that
Sunnis of Persian descent or tribal
Saudis can readily achieve Kuwaiti naturalization whilst Bedoon of
Iraqi tribal ancestry cannot. As a result, many Bedoon in Kuwait feel pressured to hide their background or sectarian affiliation. From 1965 until 1985, the Bedoon were treated as Kuwaiti citizens and guaranteed citizenship: they had free access to education, healthcare and all the other privileges of citizenship. the Bedoon were reclassified as "illegal residents" and denied Kuwaiti citizenship and its accompanying privileges. The Iran-Iraq War threatened Kuwait's internal stability and the authorities feared the sectarian background of the stateless Bedoon. Since 1986, the Kuwaiti government has refused to grant any form of documentation to the Bedoon, including
birth certificates,
death certificates,
identity cards,
marriage certificates, and
driving licences. The Bedoon also face many restrictions in employment, travel and education. They are not permitted to educate their children in state schools and universities. In 1995,
Human Rights Watch reported that there were 300,000 stateless Bedoon, and this number was formally repeated by the British government. According to several
human rights organizations, the State of Kuwait is committing
ethnic cleansing and
genocide against the stateless Bedoon. The Kuwaiti Bedoon crisis resembles the
Rohingya crisis in
Myanmar. The Kuwaiti government also stands accused of attempting to falsify their nationalities in official state documents. There have been reports of
forced disappearances and
mass graves of Bedoon. In 2013, the UK government estimated that there were 110,729 "documented" Bedoon in Kuwait, without giving a total estimate, but noting that all stateless individuals in Kuwait remain at risk of persecution and human rights breaches. The Bedoon are generally categorized into three groups: stateless tribespeople, stateless police/military and the stateless children of Kuwaiti women who married Bedoon men. According to the Kuwaiti government, there are only 93,000 "documented" Bedoon in Kuwait. In 2019, the Iranian embassy in Kuwait announced that it offers Iranian citizenship to stateless Bedoon of Iranian ancestry. In recent years, the rate of
suicide among Bedoon has risen sharply.
Demographic engineering The State of Kuwait formally has an official
Nationality Law that grants non-nationals a legal pathway to obtaining citizenship. However, as access to citizenship in Kuwait is autocratically controlled by the
Al Sabah ruling family, it is not subject to any external regulatory supervision. The naturalized citizens were predominantly Sunni Saudi immigrants from southern tribes. as a result, it is widely believed that the Bedoon issue in Kuwait is
sectarian in nature. It has been likened to
Bahrain's politically motivated naturalization policy. Within the GCC countries, politically motivated naturalization policies are referred to as "political naturalization" (). ==Iraq==