By Eugene Nicklaus S. Laqui
Thousands of naturalised Kuwaitis were shocked to receive the news that they had lost their citizenship under the intensified reformist agenda of the Kuwaiti government to “clean” its nation from individuals who lack “deep roots” in the country’s history.
Kuwait’s move to ‘clean’ the nation
The oil-rich Arab nation made international headlines after Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah unveiled plans to sweep his country of people who lack true roots and Kuwaiti identity, with some experts claiming that the move was to better tame the current political crisis in Kuwait.
The vigorous citizenship agenda of Mishal, after ascending to power in December 2023, was implemented shortly after he dissolved the Kuwaiti Parliament and vowed to “clean Kuwait from impurities”.
Since August 2024, more than 37,000 people have been stripped of their citizenship, and around 26,000 of them were women married to naturally born Kuwaiti spouses.
A ‘stateless’ individual overnight
People have shared their experiences upon learning that they are now equivalent to “foreigners” in the country that they have spent decades living in.
Some have claimed that their pensions have been blocked and frozen by the Kuwaiti government, while others say that online transactions have become void based on their banking accounts.
A businesswoman named Amal said in an interview that she had been living in Kuwait peacefully for over two decades where she had established her own business.
She said, “Overnight, I became stateless,” adding that she had been in the process of contesting the decision against her, like thousands of others who had lost their citizenship despite their clean records and abiding by the government for years.
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Targeting women and mothers, experts say
Widespread condemnation from human rights groups has decried the alleged systematic agendas of the Kuwaiti government by stripping the citizenship of Kuwaiti mothers and women married to Kuwaiti-born men.
Mansoureh Mills of Amnesty International called out the Kuwaiti government and emphasised how the right to nationality is a “very basic human right”.
Moreover, analysts have claimed that the Arab nation is also set to scrap its landmark decree regarding naturalisation through marriage signed in 1987.
Dividing the nation
Many have initially backed the citizenship agenda of the Kuwaiti government, knowing that authorities would only target individuals who have applied for citizenship through illegal matters.
But it came as a shock, especially to men married to naturalized women, that Kuwait City had also included people who went through legal procedures in attaining their Kuwaiti citizenship.
An unnamed interviewer slammed the Kuwaiti government’s “racist” and “unfair” move, targeting innocent women who had been reduced to being recognised as “fraudsters.”
He said that his naturalised Kuwaiti wife had her citizenship revoked which immediately affected her pension loan and bank accounts.
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