Investigation: Bidoons in the UAE subjected to Systematic discrimination

Bidoons in the UAE face a discriminatory and systematic approach that violates rights without any regard for decent, humane treatment.

Unofficial estimates indicate that there are between 20,000 and 100,000 Bidoons, or stateless people, residing in the Emirates.

Most Bidoons in the Emirates lack citizenship because they do not have the preferred tribal affiliation used to determine nationality when the state was established.

Others have entered the country legally or illegally in search of work.

Because children generally inherit nationality from the father, Bidoon children born within the state’s territory remained stateless.

Without passports or other forms of identification, the Bidoons movement was restricted, both within the country and internationally.

In previous years, the government had purchased a number of Comoros passports and issued them to the Bidoons.

The documents granted Comorian economic citizenship to the beneficiaries and legalized their status in the United Arab Emirates.

But passports did not extend citizenship or the right to reside in Comoros.

In 2018, the Comoros Ministry of Interior and Foreign Affairs announced that the country’s government would stop issuing new passports under its economic citizenship program.

The UAE government has a naturalization process, and individuals can apply for citizenship, but the Bidun are prohibited from doing so.

Children of female Emirati women married to non-citizens do not automatically acquire citizenship upon birth.

However, their mothers may obtain citizenship for the children after submitting an application, which a government committee reviews and generally accept as soon as the child turns 18.

A foreign woman is entitled to citizenship after seven years of marriage if the spouses have a child or ten years of marriage if the spouses have no children.

Any person may obtain a passport by presidential order.

The government committee that reviews mothers’ citizenship requests for their children also claims to review citizenship applications submitted by Bidoons. They can meet specific legal requirements to be eligible for citizenship and thus have access to education, health care, and other public services.

However, there were no verified reports of stateless persons acquiring Emirati citizenship.

And recently, an international human rights activist said that the UAE’s reforms are far from providing comprehensive reforms that provide total justice.

Lurkan Owens, an analyst and writer, addressed the UAE announcement in late January of plans to provide the option to obtain citizenship for a limited number of expatriates.

Owens said the process of obtaining Emirati citizenship is a selective one, as Emirati citizenship candidates should have “exceptional talents.”

He added that the mere possibility of obtaining citizenship is something new, and he follows a series of recent reforms aimed at attracting Western investors as part of the country’s transition to a post-oil economy.

But he emphasized that this selectivity also indicates something else: the reforms that Abu Dhabi is undertaking are nothing more than cosmetic and far from providing comprehensive reforms.

“Instead of providing justice to the Emirati society, the state is only doing anything but perpetuating massive, race-based inequality,” he said.

While the demographic and political implications of expanding Emirati citizenship to a group of wealthy and influential Westerners are still unknown, it would fundamentally change the original Emirati citizen’s perceived status quo vis-à-vis the guest-factor dynamic for the latter.

Few of them can hope to obtain a permanent right in Emirati society.