A Kuwaiti stateless man has reportedly attempted suicide by setting himself on fire in his home in the Sulaibiya area and is now in hospital receiving intensive care. The attempt has rekindled the conversation over stateless people in Kuwait, also known as Bidoon, as more than 120,000 people continue to live with no citizenship in the country they were born in.
Our youth became bearers of the gallows with which they end their lives, instead of bearing the scientific certificates with which they began this life ...@BahrainRights @JoeBiden
— أللطاف العنزي?? (@Altaf_alenzi02) December 27, 2020
#انتحار_بدون_بالصليبيه pic.twitter.com/RwSwmc9EcY
Reacting to the news of the attempted suicide, thousands of Kuwaitis created the hashtags #حل_قضيه_البدون_هي_الانتحار (Suicide is the solution to the Bidoon problem) and #انتحار_بدون_بالصليبية (the suicide of Sulaibiya's bidoon; urging officials to take serious actions towards granting full rights to the Bidoon community, before it's too late.
Social media users tweeted in support of the stateless community, calling on authorities to speed up political discussions that aim to reach a fair solution to their worsening conditions in the country.
#انتحار_بدون_بالصليبية What is more heartbreaking is that he used the worst method to commit suicide. Just reflect what makes a person reach a point of their life where burning themselves is more merciful that living?
— ﾒ (@id6ii_) December 29, 2020
@UNHumanRights bedoon in kuwait no jobs no actual home nothing to o do plz help us ??? everyday we hear ppl from bedoon killing them self of the miserable life #bedoon #انتحار_بدون_بالصليبية #الى_متى_بدون
— ♋️ (@sarah_kuniv) December 29, 2020
In the newly-formed parliament, a number of MPs have pledged to put pressure on the Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah so his government provides the stateless community with a fair and just solution as soon as possible.
الحمد لله، تم تفعيل تسجيل البدون في اللقاح pic.twitter.com/ZHKYHhhIuR
— Abdullah Sh Marafi (@AShMarafi) December 29, 2020
Translation: "Thank God, the stateless population has been registered for the vaccine."
Recently, many online people expressed relief over the Kuwaiti government's decision to include members of the stateless community in the free vaccine campaign rolled out in the country for over a week now.
قضية #البدون هي القضية الأخلاقية الكبرى. #انتحار_بدون_بالصليبية pic.twitter.com/aigy7KhDXz
— د.فيصل الفوزان (@f3i9al) December 29, 2020
Translation: "The stateless issues is the biggest moral dilemma"
The environmental racism, poverty and institutional violence that Kuwait’s Bedoon population deals with has caused generational trauma and will continue to, systemic changes MUST be made! #انتحار_بدون_بالصليبية
— Mariam (@Mariam__AlSaad) December 28, 2020
Thousands of people who belong to nomadic tribes in the Arabian Peninsula have been denied Kuwaiti citizenship as they settled in Kuwait by 1959. Legally, they have been given unique IDs with limited access to services and rights granted to other individuals who have received the country's full citizenship. Hence, generations of the Bidoon community have suffered in record numbers much poverty and unemployment.
