Deprivation of nationality in the Gulf: Stories from Kuwait and Bahrain

Global Voices is reporting on the growing use of citizenship revocation across the Gulf, drawing on accounts from Kuwait and Bahrain. In Kuwait, amendments passed in twenty twenty-five made it easier to strip nationality, and the country's Supreme Committee for Verifying Kuwaiti Nationality has reportedly revoked the citizenship of more than forty-two thousand people since twenty twenty-four. Many of those affected are women who had gained nationality through marriage under an article of the law that has now been repealed, and the outlet reports the revocations came without judicial oversight or any route to appeal. Bahrain has followed a similar path, with more than one thousand people denaturalized between twenty twelve and twenty twenty; a royal pardon in twenty nineteen restored nationality to five hundred fifty-one of them, though rights advocates quoted by Global Voices say roughly four hundred thirty-five cases remain unresolved. Those left stateless lose their identity documents and passports, and with them access to healthcare, education, employment, and the freedom to travel.

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