[Salon] "Stateless by decree: Kuwait’s mass denaturalisation campaign" - ArabDigest.org Guest Post

Stateless by decree: Kuwait’s mass denaturalisation campaign Summary: Kuwait’s amir has ruthlessly pursued a policy of mass citizenship stripping with tens of thousands denaturalised and with a dissolved parliament and a climate of fear leaving no recourse for those affected. We thank Andrew McIntosh for today’s newsletter. Andrew is the Director of Research at the NGO SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights. His specialty fields are media analysis, sectarianism and statelessness in Bahrain, Kuwait and Syria. Since 2024, Kuwait has undergone an unprecedented political and social transformation. The appointment of the new Amir, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, was followed by the suspension of the Parliament. During Al-Sabah’s consolidation of power, he has placed the state under his sole direction and stripped an estimated 40,000-70,000, most of them women and children, of their citizenship, with up to 300,000 people affected, including descendants and dependants. SALAM DHR together with seven other human rights organisations has released “Stateless by Decree: End Kuwait’s Citizenship Stripping Crisis” a report documenting the country’s grim milestone: overseeing the largest mass denaturalisation of the 21st century, with critics abroad and international students now being caught up in the Al-Sabah campaign. In 2026, the denaturalisation has accelerated now targeting Kuwaitis abroad, sometimes without explanation. These acts of public shaming, detentions, deportations and civic death have gutted civil society and silenced dissent, with most afraid to speak out, lest they share the fate of those targeted. Kuwait has stood, along with Bahrain, as one of the only nominally functional democracies in the Gulf. However, Kuwait’s representative politics have always been limited by the Amir’s ability to dissolve parliament. After ascending to the throne in December 2023, Al-Sabah instrumentalised denaturalisation and the dissolution of parliament to purge potential rivals and to further autocratise the state. A pickup truck crowded with Bidoon families travels toward Jahra and Salmi - the historic epicentre of Kuwait’s long-standing stateless community, whose disenfranchisement is now mirrored by tens of thousands of newly denaturalised citizens. In May 2024, citing political gridlock, the Amir announced via a televised speech that he was dissolving parliament and seven articles of the Kuwait Constitution for up to four years. During this extraordinary period, the Amir and his hand-picked Council of Ministers have assumed all legislative and executive powers. The Bidoon, those without nationality in Kuwait, have since the country’s independence in 1961 been a simmering and unresolved issue. However Al-Sabah has used his unchecked authority to accelerate a hyper-nationalist campaign of mass revocations that are designed, in his words, to achieve “national purification” of a country “hijacked” by other nationalities that he accused of obtaining Kuwaiti citizenship by marriage or by fraud. The result has been that between 2024 and 2026, tens of thousands of Kuwaitis have been denaturalised on the grounds that they are: women formerly married to Kuwaitis; deemed to have multiple citizenships; deemed a “security risk” or “undesirable.” Even those granted citizenship for services to Kuwait – such as serving in the military or being exceptional artists have had their citizenship removed. However, most of those affected are experiencing collective punishment, that is their citizenships retroactively cancelled because their fathers or grandfathers were stripped of nationality, even if they are no longer alive. Others, such as the influential Islamic scholar Tareq al-Suwaidan, were provided no official reason. From 2024 through 2025, the government published vast lists of newly denaturalised people on social media and in state-controlled newspapers, without directly informing those targeted. On 16 February 2025, more than 9,000 people were denaturalised in a single day. During these public mass citizenship strippings, the Kuwaiti government took measures to suppress civil society. Talk shows are now banned. Diwaniyas—Kuwait’s historic democratic discussion forums—have been shuttered. Restrictions on the media currently extend to WhatsApp groups of three or more. Municipal elections, and even student elections at universities, have been cancelled. Although Kuwaiti authorities claim that they target criminals such as those who acquired citizenship through fraud, forgery or misrepresentation, in practice the campaign overlaps with measures meant to restrict freedom of expression and opinion, with Article 13 of Kuwait’s revised Nationality Law stating that citizens can be denaturalised where the “supreme interest of the State or its external security so requires”. In Kuwait, matters on nationality have no court oversight, and under the newly passed Decree Law 158/2024, revocation decisions are “not subject to appeal under any circumstances”, leaving those affected with no legal remedy. Targeted by royal decrees or “administrative decisions” that Kuwaiti courts cannot challenge, those affected have little to no recourse. Regardless of the official reasoning, the effects are devastating for those targeted. Deprived of their Kuwaiti nationality, individuals lose their right to attend public schools, access free state health care, work for the government or at all or receive their state pension. In addition, they can no longer own property, hold a valid driving licence or hold a Kuwaiti bank account, credit cards are cancelled, making a normal life in the country impossible. Given that holding multiple nationalities is already illegal in Kuwait, most of these people have been rendered stateless and left to their own devices on how to acquire another nationality. Newly stateless Kuwaitis who have tried to draw attention to the lack of oversight in these decisions and the hardships occasioned have been subjected to harassment, arrest and deportation by Kuwaiti authorities. One individual interviewed claimed that after posting about her citizenship revocation on social media, she was assailed by anonymous accounts. Shortly afterwards, she was summoned to the local police station, where she was strip-searched, accused of “challenging the state” by authorities and threatened to be hung by her legs. She was later deported to Egypt without a valid passport and without her children. Public fear of being denaturalised or facing further abuse from authorities has left victims isolated, even those who have been targeted outside Kuwait. In September 2026, numerous Kuwaiti international students were stripped of their citizenship and scholarships by the Kuwaiti government. Although the full impact of this decision remains unclear, the campaign appears to be wide-reaching, affecting Kuwaiti students across the world. Many have had little choice but to suspend their studies and request asylum. Despite being left stateless and stranded in their country of study, most fear criticising the Kuwaiti government, claiming they won’t be believed or will be shunned. One recently denaturalised student reflected on the irony that: “We had our ambassador at the UN saying Kuwait rejects all forms of racism. [Yet Kuwaiti] people still view [citizenship stripping] as fair, and the government is very firm.” With authorities publicly claiming that they are “Continuing to Purge Impurities from Citizenship Records”, speaking out remains dangerous. Both within Kuwait and abroad, those stripped of their citizenship have expressed shock and despair, both at the removal of everything that made their lives stable and at the silence of the international community. Within Kuwait, stateless individuals who cannot pay their bills face prosecution and possible imprisonment under Decree-Law No. 59 of 2025, also known as the Debtor’s Law. Unable to access their bank accounts and with their properties forfeited, most face the dilemma of relying on friends and family while either making themselves invisible in Kuwaiti society or taking a nationality in countries they barely know. “I was a business owner. I’ve lost everything. Now they want to prosecute me for debts I’m not allowed to pay. All because I was born in Lebanon and moved to Kuwait when I was one year old.” For those made stateless outside Kuwait, there is the thought that their situation can give them a new life and the possibility to advocate for others like them, both in Kuwait and in exile. There is hope too that Kuwait’s allies in the West will take up their cause. “Obviously there’s no going back. It’s a massive change…. There is no room to breathe… .We will not feel fully supported until we have everyone’s attention.”