Bidun

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Bidun jinsiya (or bidoon jinsiya) is an Arabic term meaning "without nationality." Usually referred to simply as bidun (بِدون), the term refers to the stateless people of certain Bedouin tribes in Kuwait and Bahrain whose members were not granted citizenship, and so are seriously legally disadvantaged in comparison with the regular citizens of these countries.

Biduns may be refugees who have illegally entered these nations to avoid poverty or war, or those who have settled there since 1920 but who have not been recognized by the state. They are not afforded the rights of a full citizen of the country. The children of bidun fathers are themselves considered bidun.

Before 1990, the majority of bidun were Bedouin settlers from the northern Arabian Peninsula. Following the invasion of Kuwait in the early 1990s a large number (estimated at between 50,000 and 85,000) of Iraqi refugees remained in the country. A further 10,000 to 20,000 Palestinian refugees have since joined them.

The government of Kuwait has stated that it plans to assimilate the bidun, granting them full citizenship. In May 2000 up to 36,000 bidun who had been residents in Kuwait since 1965 were granted citizenship, and in 2001 the same rights were extended to bidun husbands of Kuwaiti women. The number granted citizenship has since fallen to between 600 and 2000 per year.