KUWAIT CITY, Sept 23: The Central System for Remedying the Status of Illegal Residents (CSRSIR) will soon submit the names of 30,000 Bedouns for naturalization. “These include those who were included in the 1965 census and those who participated in Arab wars besides those who served in the Defense and Interior ministries,” Al-Rai daily quoted chairman of Kuwaiti Bedoun Committee Ahmad Al-Tamimi as saying.
Al-Tamimi said the irresponsible calls for Bedouns’ protests during the current unstable political situation in the country were made due to government’s inability to provide a final solution for the problem. The government’s procedures in dealing with the cause are not clear, he said, adding the issue attracted more international attention than that of the government.
Al-Tamimi said the calls coincided with the arrival of an international refugee affairs delegation in the country. The delegation met Chairman of CSRSIR Saleh Al-Fadhalah who mentioned that the government granted Bedouns 11 humanitarian rights to allow them to lead a comfortable life until their case is finally solved. Al-Fadhalah also stated that CSRSIR will soon issue magnetic security cards to Bedouns. “Such statements alone, however, cannot bear fruits under the current local conditions, especially since several discriminatory procedures are taken against Bedouns such as withdrawing security cards from some of them and depriving them of some of their basic human rights,” said Al-Tamimi. He added that such calls for protests are actually aimed at expressing dissatisfaction with the unreal statements sometimes issued by the system.