The Stateless People In Arab World - The Bedoons

The Bidoon are generally categorized into three groups: stateless tribespeople; economic migrants and the children of GCC or Iraqi women who married Bidoon men. The stateless tribes people are those whose ancestors had settled in GCC countries (and Iraq) but were excluded from registration at the time of the respective states' independence. The second group, former citizens of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, frequently abandoned their original nationality to join Kuwaiti and other GCC armed forces and police in the 1960s and 1970s.The Kuwaiti government preferred to register these people as "Bidoon" rather than to reveal the politically-sensitive recruitment policy in the armed forces and police. At the time, the Bidoon status conferred many economic benefits. The third group is composed of the children of women of GCC nationality married to Bidoon men.