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.
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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.”
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