2024-07-14 13:16:36
The suspension of the “Bedoon” passports in Kuwait has sparked widespread interaction on social media, amid calls to reconsider the decision.
A large number of tweets criticizing the decision spread on the “X-Twitter” website, and many expressed sympathy for the “Bedoons,” and a number of them in Kuwait expressed their dissatisfaction with the troubles they are facing because of this decision, especially those whose work depends on travel and movement.
Kuwait had previously announced “suspending the use of passports used by the stateless category (Bidoon) in the country.”
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior confirmed, in a statement via the “X” social media platform, “that Sheikh Fahd Youssef Saud Al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior, directed the suspension of Article No. (17) passports for illegal residents, and all transactions submitted for them, with the exception of humanitarian cases “treatment and study.”
The Ministry of Interior noted, “Everyone who has an Article 17 passport is considered to have been cancelled, calling on those with the aforementioned humanitarian cases to visit the Adan Center according to a previous appointment on its website.”
Kuwaiti press sources reported that instructions were issued “to withdraw all passports of illegal residents (Article 17) upon departure or arrival through ports, whether air, land or sea, indicating a circular to all airlines not to accept travel for anyone currently holding that passport.”
These passports are granted to the category of “stateless persons, illegal residents, or Bedouins of Kuwait; or those called “Bidoons”, who do not have official documents in Kuwait”, to facilitate their travel, and under conditions, including study or treatment. This passport does not carry the characteristics of the Kuwaiti passport (blue), such as the right to enter the Gulf Cooperation Council countries without a visa, nor is it exempt from obtaining visas for countries that waive them for Kuwaiti citizens. Estimates indicate that the number of “Bidoons” ranges “between 100 and 120 thousand still living in Kuwait.
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2024-07-14 13:16:36