An executive meeting of the National Assembly chaired by Speaker Marzouk Al-Ghanem, and attended by ministers and top government officials, approved a draft law intended to provide an overarching solution to the situation of tens of thousands of stateless people, or beidoun, living in the country.

Speaker Al-Ghanem told media representatives that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh, and the Minister of Justice and Minister of State for the National Assembly Dr. Fahd Mohammed Mohsen Al-Afasi, along with top representatives for the foreign and interior ministries attended the meeting.

The meeting, which was the first-of-its-kind to have such top-level representation aiming to tackle the issue of beidoun that has been festering for over a decade, was also attended by the Head of the government agency for Beidoun, Saleh Al-Fadhalah, and the head of the UN Refugee Agency in Kuwait.

Though the Speaker did not divulge any details of the meeting, he said that a separate meeting would be held for NGOs and activists in the National Assembly building to discuss the issue. He also added that the law will be finalized before the new term of the National Assembly opens in October, and will be submitted to the Assembly for debate and approval in the new term.

The Speaker reiterated that the proposed solution will not undermine the national identity of Kuwait and aims to provide a fundamental and lasting solution to the issue of beidoun, who are estimated unofficially to number at around 120,000. Beidouns claim the right to Kuwaiti citizenship but the government insists that a majority of them or their forefathers crossed the border from neighboring countries and destroyed their identification documents to claim the right to Kuwaiti nationality. Nevertheless, the government acknowledged that around 34,000 were genuine cases that qualify for the consideration of citizenship.

In recent years, the authorities have stepped up pressure on the beidoun to force them to reveal their original identity, but most beidoun reject the government claim and say they have lived in the country all their lives.

Just before the National Assembly went into summer recess, the parliament’s human rights panel approved a draft law to grant beidoun full humanitarian and civil rights that include free education and medical services, as well as allow them to take up jobs in the public and private sectors.

 


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