KUWAIT CITY, 25 April 2004 — Kuwaiti opposition MPs walked out of Parliament yesterday, accusing the government of failure to resolve the ordeal of tens of thousands of stateless Arabs living in the emirate for decades.
The Parliament was holding a special session to review government plans to resolve the problem of 90,000 stateless, known as bidoons, who claim to be Kuwaiti citizens but officials insist come from neighboring states.
“What happened today exemplifies the government’s unwillingness to solve this humanitarian issue. The government is simply not interested,” veteran MP Ahmad Al-Saadoun told reporters as he led lawmakers out of the session.
The session was held behind closed doors at the request of the government, which said it wanted to provide MPs with confidential information. But lawmakers said the information they heard had already been published in the press.
“There are some officials who don’t want to provide these people with their rights as human beings. They are denied driver’s licenses, education, medical services and documentation of marriage contracts,” said MP Mussallam Al-Barrak.
“This is a humanitarian issue that impacts on Kuwait’s image abroad. We will submit several proposals to end this crisis,” Islamist MP Nasser Al-Sane said.
The government insists that most bidoons (Arabic for without), or illegal residents as it calls them, or their ancestors had come to Kuwait from neighboring states after the discovery of oil, looking for lucrative benefits provided only to citizens.
Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told the house in a statement that out of 90,000 bidoons, 20,000 had produced their original citizenship and were given residence permits like other foreigners. He said documents show another 37,000 of them belong to other countries and accordingly must stop claiming Kuwaiti citizenship.
