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Outrage as poverty leads young bidoon man to commit suicide in Kuwait 

July 9, 2019 at 12:25 pm

Human rights activists and social media users expressed outrage after a “stateless young man” or “bidoon” committed suicide in Kuwait due to poverty and desperation.

The activists yesterday called for a sit-in to demand better conditions for the group.

On Sunday, 20-year-old Ayed Hamad Madath committed suicide by hanging himself in the city of Saad Al-Abdullah in Jahra in mysterious circumstances.

Writing on Twitter his brother said that Ayed committed suicide because of his bad financial situation after he lost his job because he was not carrying an ID card.

At least 100,000 bidoons live in Kuwait and they make up 2.3 per cent of the total population.

Bidoon, short for bidoon jinsiya meaning “without nationality” in Arabic, are a stateless Arab minority in Kuwait who were not included as citizens at the time of the country’s independence or shortly thereafter.

Authorities claim a majority of them are “illegal residents” who deliberately destroyed their identification documents which proved they held other nationalities, such as Iraqi or Saudi Arabian, in order to obtain the generous social benefits offered by Kuwait.

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