Gulf States

Statelessness in Bahrain is most often caused and perpetuated by discrimination on various grounds such as gender, race, ethnicity, disability and socio-economic status. Since 2012, hundreds of Bahrainis have also had their nationality revoked via executive order, royal decrees or court decisions. While 985 individuals are known to have been deprived on Bahraini nationality in this way, there are no officially recorded statistics on the number of stateless people in Bahrain.

Bahrain has historically stateless Bedoun and Ajam. According to independent organizations, there are between 2,000 and 5,000 Bidoon families who were denied nationality. Bidoons have long existed in the country but have been denied nationality for several reasons (most notably because they were not included in the original register of residents when the country was formed). The word Bidoon means “without,” and it comes from a definition of people who are “without nationality.” In addition to Bidoon, a large portion of Bahrain’s Ajam, a Shia ethnoreligious community with Persian ancestors is stateless. The rejection of citizenship for Ajam people, along with entrenched manifestations of institutionalized discrimination against the country’s predominantly Shia minority, has pushed the group into disproportionately poor socioeconomic conditions. Bahrain is also not a party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (the 1954 Convention), nor the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (the 1961 Convention). The country does not have domestic legislation on refugees.

Like other countries in the region, Bahrain also denies women the right to confer their nationality to their children in most circumstances but keeps some exceptions, such as when the father is stateless or unknown. In some cases, nationality may be granted to the children of female citizens by application, however, this is done on a case-by-case basis.

Kuwait has a population of 4.2 million people, of whom more than half are not Kuwaiti citizens. The country hosts an estimated 93,000 stateless people. The main stateless population is known as the Bidoon (Arabic word for ‘without’), who arepeople who failed to acquire citizenship during the formation of Kuwait as an independent state, and their descendants. Other stateless groups,
including an estimated 80,000 Palestinians, are also present in the country, as well as individuals who have been left stateless due to flaws and gaps in Kuwait’s 1959 Nationality Law.There are also religious restrictions on naturalisation and Kuwait has engaged in the withdrawal of nationality in a manner that has left people stateless and even extended this to their children.

The 1959 creates several problems that exacerbate statelessness. In the country nationality is transferred aacording to paternal jus sanguinis, so from father to child. This means that women are prohibited from passing on their nationality, so a child of a stateless father will also be stateless, even if the child is born in Kuwait and/or has a Kuwaiti mother. A child of a Kuwaiti mother and an unknown father, or a father who is unable or unwilling to transfer his own citizenship, will also be left stateless. The rules for naturalisation and acquisition of Kuwaiti nationality are also very strict. One of the conditions is that the person has to live in Kuwait for a minimum of 15 to 20 years. The person must also be Muslim by birth or have converted to Islam more than five years prior to making the application for naturalisation. Kuwait also prohibits dual nationality and so to naturalise as a Kuwaiti, a person must renounce their original nationality.

More recently after the Arab Spring in 2011, Bedoons in Kuwait demonstrated asking for their rights. The government responded to these demonstrations by promising to provide them with some rights. Many believe that they were granted these rights for almost two years but after a few years everything changed. In 2014, Kuwait suggested that these Bedoons would pay money and get the Komor ID, like what the United Arab Emirates did. But after rejections from the Bedoons, the government didn’t proceed with implementation.

Oman is not a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. There are no specific national laws or administrative regulations governing the status of asylum-seekers or refugees. Although Oman is not party to the 1951 Convention and does not have a national framework regulating issues related to asylum, Article 36 of the Constitution prohibits refoulement. According to UNHCR, no case of statelessness in the Sultanate of Oman (Oman) has been reported to the agency. As for nationality laws in Oman, women may grant nationality to their children born either in Oman or abroad if the fathers are unknown or are former Omani nationals. In addition, in very limited circumstances, a minor child born from an Omani mother and a foreign father may be granted Omani citizenship.

Qatar is not a state party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Moreover, Qatar denies women the right to confer nationality to their children and spouses in all circumstances even if this would result in statelessness. As for dual nationality, Qatar took steps to re-attribute citizenship to the vast majority of the individuals who were dual nationals.

In 1995, Qatar denationalized and deported members of the Al-Ghufran tribe, accused of competing with the ruling family putting them at great risk of statelessness. More recently, data from UNHCR shows that there’re approximately 1200 stateless people in Qatar, though older estimates suggest the number of Bidoon (stateless Arabs) could be significantly higher.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not a state party to either the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. According to UNHCR, there’re currently 70,000 stateless people in the country.

In 2014, the Kingdom introduced new steps to allow children to apply for nationality based on maternal descent on a case-by-case basis. Although the laws in the kingdom deny women the right to confer their nationality to children in most circumstances, there are some exceptions, such as when the father is stateless or unknown.

While the Emirati government refuses to release demographic statistics on the amount of Bedoon in the UAE (due to its refusal to recognize the existence of statelessness), the US Department of State estimates the stateless population to be between 20,000 and 100,000 people. The major cause behind this number is the nationality law and policies adopted by the UAE government. The UAE is also not a state party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Yet, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tried to reduce statelessness by implementing some measures.

Like the majority of other States in the region, Emirati nationality law operates under jus sanguinis, thus citizenship is obtained by descent only. However, in 2006, the UAE government released orders to find solutions for 10,000 registered stateless persons, which resulted in the naturalization of nearly 1,300 people. In 2008, the UAE government paid the Comoros government $ 200 million as part of a covert scheme to give Bidoon citizenship to Comoros. That year, the Ministry of Interior has also announced the start of a two-month registration campaign for the country’s stateless people, as well as the establishment of four registration centers in the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman.

Furthermore, in 2011 and 2017, the UAE introduced some partial measures to allow children to apply for nationality based on maternal descent on a discretionary basis. In general, the UAE denies women the right to confer their nationality to children in most cases but maintains some exceptions, such as when the father is stateless or unknown.