1,758 more stripped of citizenship; women to keep jobs, pension

Kuwait: A section of Kuwaiti women who lost their citizenship will keep their jobs at the same pay and if retired will continue to receive their pension, the interior minister said Thursday, as 1,758 more Kuwaitis has their citizenship revoked. “Wives of Kuwaitis, divorced women and widows who had their citizenship withdrawn and still live in Kuwait will keep their jobs and same salaries,” Acting Prime Minister and Interior and Defense Minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef Al-Sabah said in a statement on Thursday.

The minister added that if those women are retired, they will continue to receive their pensions. The minister’s statements came after the government announced on Thursday that 1,758 more Kuwaitis has their citizenship revoked by the supreme commission for nationality, raising the total number of Kuwaitis who were stripped of their nationality to around 7,000.

Assistant director of the nationality department Sheikh Turki Al-Sabah, who is a member of the commission, told Kuwait TV in an interview aired on Tuesday that the citizenship of 4,447 Kuwaitis had been revoked since the drive began in May to crack down on forgery and dual citizenship, banned under Kuwaiti law.

However, the interview was conducted last Thursday and before the commission announced a decision to revoke the citizenship of 1,647 Kuwaitis. That batch was approved by the Cabinet, but the new one will be reviewed next week. Based on this, the number of those who already lost their citizenship or are in the process of losing it is well over 7,000. Decisions of the commission are sent to the Cabinet for approval and the council has so far approved all previous decisions taken since the drive began in May.

Sheikh Turki said during the interview that three main reasons stand out as the cause to withdraw citizenship — forgery of documents, dual citizenship and citizenship granted through decisions and not an Amiri decree as required by the law. Officials of the commission also said that those who lose citizenship are given a special ID until their case is finally settled.