US Politics on Sidechat | Kuwait has a population of 300,000 people known as Bedoons, primarily Shia Arabs or Persians, who are arbitrarily excluded from citizenship and considered “illegal residents” despite being from Kuwait This is why birthright citizenship is important (cont

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US Politics 3w

Kuwait has a population of 300,000 people known as Bedoons, primarily Shia Arabs or Persians, who are arbitrarily excluded from citizenship and considered “illegal residents” despite being from Kuwait This is why birthright citizenship is important (cont

13 upvotes, 5 comments. Sidechat image post by Anonymous in US Politics. "Kuwait has a population of 300,000 people known as Bedoons, primarily Shia Arabs or Persians, who are arbitrarily excluded from citizenship and considered “illegal residents” despite being from Kuwait

This is why birthright citizenship is important (cont"

Anonymous 3w

The Bedoons have been in Kuwait as long as Kuwait has been independent. However, they had never been granted formal citizenship rights, despite being treated as if they were citizen and being the main group in the Kuwaiti military. The Bedoons are primarily of Arab tribal origin, most are closely related to tribal groups in Iraq. Following the Gulf War, where Iraq invaded Kuwait, the government began a massive campaign of anti-Bedoon repression.

Anonymous

OP 3w

Bedoons are excluded from employment, schools, can’t have drivers licenses, and are constantly threatened with deportation from the only country they have ever known. This exclusion and repression is both due to their cultural proximity to Iraq and because they are Shia rather than Sunni. The rulers of Kuwait see the Bedoons, 1/3 of Kuwait’s native population, as a threat to their authority.

Anonymous

OP 3w

The Bedoons are stateless. They are not citizens of Kuwait, but they aren’t citizens of any other nation because they are from Kuwait. Kuwait considers them illegal aliens, but they are Kuwaiti. They have no path to citizenship. Half have been driven to squalid refugee camps across the border in Iraq.

Anonymous

OP 3w

So remember this when republicans talk about revoking citizenship from native-born and naturalized Americans. Countries can and have declared members of their own nation as “illegal aliens” and have segregated and deported them, despite them having no other country to go to. Do not let our government make stateless people.

Anonymous

OP 3w

Kuwait is far from the only gulf country to have Bedoons, but it has the largest population and the most brutal treatment. The UAE’s “solution” to the Bedoon problem was to pay a bunch of money to the Comoros and then give the Bedoons Comorian passports, rather than make them citizens of the country they are from. They now have passports, but are treated as foreigners by both the UAE and Comoros.