KUWAIT: Head of a government committee appointed to study grievances against revocation of citizenship Ali Al-Dhubaibi said on Wednesday the panel has received 5,148 grievances in the past four days. The committee started receiving grievances from people who had their citizenship revoked on Sunday. It gave people 60 days to submit their applications. Since the drive began a year ago, Kuwait has revoked the citizenship of well over 35,000 citizens, around 29,000 of them wives of Kuwaiti men who were granted citizenship following marriage. The rest were accused by the supreme committee for nationality of obtaining citizenship through illegal methods, mainly through forgery or by providing false documents.

Those who were stripped of their citizenship cannot sue the government in court because nationality is considered a sovereign matter under Kuwaiti law and courts are not authorized to hear such cases. Al-Dhubaibi said applications can be filed online anytime.

Meanwhile, an official with the central agency for illegal residents told the United Nations Human Rights Council that there are no stateless people or bedoons in Kuwait, insisting that all of them are considered illegal residents. Sulaf Al-Meshaal said illegal residents (or their forefathers) had entered Kuwait through illegal ways, destroyed their identity papers and claimed to be citizens. She insisted that the government provides them with free medical care, education and other essential services, and facilitates finding public or private jobs for them.