Kuwait revoked the citizenship of 2,182 individuals last week. The massive denationalization campaign continues amid an ongoing domestic political crisis. The national assembly is suspended. The government now rules by executive decree.
The recent dismissals push the total number of individuals stripped of nationality to at least 70,000 since the political crackdown began. That represents roughly 4.6% of the country’s official citizen population. The latest enforcement requires newly naturalized citizens to formally renounce any other nationalities within three months.
Authorities expanded the legal criteria for citizenship withdrawal. The state can now revoke nationality for submitting forged application data or receiving criminal convictions linked to national security. Individuals convicted of providing false information face heavy fines and up to seven years in prison. The enforcement disproportionately hits the historically stateless Bidoon population and foreign women who acquired citizenship through marriage.
Tens of thousands of people lost their legal status overnight. They face the immediate loss of property rights, frozen bank accounts, and canceled business licenses.
How Decree-Law No. 52 Blocks Legal Recourse for Deportees
This is the largest mass citizenship revocation campaign in the modern history of the Arab World. A single revocation extends retroactively. It strips nationality from spouses, children, and grandchildren simultaneously. Local academic sources estimate the collateral fallout could eventually affect up to one in five Kuwaitis.
State authorities mandated the use of biometric and DNA testing to settle nationality disputes under the new decrees. The legal update creates a massive shift in how the state handles national identity. Decree-Law No. 52 of 2026 classifies all citizenship matters as absolute acts of sovereignty, removing the government’s revocation decisions from any form of judicial review. Affected individuals have no legal avenue to appeal.