What it means to be ‘without’

Who are the bidoon?

When Kuwait gained independence from the UK in 1961, two categories of citizens were defined – those who lived in Kuwait before 1920, and those who came between 1920 and 1948, often from Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.

A third group became known as the bidoon, a word that means “without”. They included Arab and non-Arabs, and were considered potential citizens.

They were eligible for state education and health care but had no voting rights. The government granted them cards in the early 1960s, categorising them as “temporarily without citizenship”.

Bidoon in the UAE

In 1972, Federal Law No 17 stipulated that citizenship would be granted to those who had lived in the Emirates since 1925. Those resident since 1940 had to wait 20 years to apply. Those from Oman, Bahrain or Qatar were eligible to apply after three. Those from other Arab states were eligible after 10 years. Citizenship could be awarded under special circumstances.

In the 1990s, the Ministry of Interior took over the kafala sponsorship system from the Ministry of Labour. In 2004, the Emirates Identity Authority was established and the national ID card project began. A prerequisite for citizens to acquire a card was the family book, a document that traces genealogical descent and is owned only by Emirati men or unmarried women older than 34. The family book rendered passports insufficient proof of citizenship.

Before 2004, those seeking citizenship approached the emirate of residence first, then the Ministry of Interior in Abu Dhabi. From this point, applicants had to go directly to the Ministry of Interior with a locally issued family book, federalising the citizenship process.

In a 2006 initiative, the Supreme Federal Council approved the naturalisation of 1,294 people. The government called on all bidoon to register as part of a 60-day campaign in 2008.

Comoros Islands

That year, the UAE and Kuwait reached an agreement with the Comoros Islands that it would grant passports to the bidoon. It was agreed that 4,000 families would become naturalised Comorians. Both the UAE and Kuwait have made extensive investments in Comoros infrastructure.