Stateless rally in Kuwait

Hundreds of stateless people in Kuwait demonstrated on Friday for the third week demanding citizenship and basic rights, carrying banners reading: “I have a dream.” Women, children and men took part in the rally in Jahra, northwest of Kuwait City, which has become the epicenter of weekly protests for stateless people to press for their rights. Kuwaiti activists, representatives of a local human rights association and even a member of the Al-Sabah ruling family took part in the rally, which remained peaceful as police watched without interfering for the second week. About 50 men donated blood to the central blood bank in a symbolic gesture to show that the stateless, locally known as bidoons, care for Kuwait, where around 105,000 of them reside. “You are heroes; they beat you up and you gave them flowers. They used water cannons and you responded by donating blood,” Sheikh Athbi Al-Sabah told the crowd, referring to police action on protesters two weeks ago. The rally came just one day after Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Humud Al-Sabah reiterated that the Gulf state was preparing legislation to grant citizenship to stateless individuals who fulfilled certain criteria. The minister said that citizenship will be given to stateless people in the army and police force; those who were recorded in the 1965 census; relatives of Kuwaitis; and children of Kuwaiti women divorced from foreign husbands. The stateless claim the right to Kuwaiti nationality, saying that their ancestors failed to register for citizenship when the government began registration five decades ago. Kuwait has long said that most bidoons or their forefathers destroyed their original passports to claim the right to citizenship in order to gain access to the services and generous benefits provided to citizens. In a bid to force them to produce their original nationality papers, Kuwait has denied them essential documentation, including birth, marriage and death certificates, according to a report in June by Human Rights Watch. About 52 stateless men are on trial for protesting while 32 others were interrogated and freed on bail.