KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti government is currently preparing a list of names of up to 4,000 non-Kuwaitis to be granted Kuwaiti citizenship, well-informed sources said, noting that the list would be announced sometime before the end of the year.

The naturalization process will be made according to a law passed in parliament and stipulates that the government cannot give citizenship to more than 4,000 a year. However, the law does not stipulate that Kuwait must naturalize 4,000 people each year, explained the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Arab nationals
Furthermore, the law does not mandate the government to grant citizenship exclusively to bedoons (stateless). "The list may include Arabs holding other nationalities," the sources stressed, noting that candidates in that case include children of Kuwaiti widows or divorced women who meet the conditions required for naturalization, such as that the child must be born, raised and educated in Kuwait.
Further, the sources revealed that the list would also include the names of five expatriate doctors "who have spent their lives serving Kuwait," in addition to bedoons who have worked for Kuwait Oil Company and bedoon military personnel who took part in the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, as well as the Kuwait liberation war.

Detainee in US back home
In other news, Kuwaiti citizen Yasser Al-Bahri, who is currently detained at the United States' immigration detention, is set to return to Kuwait on November 20, 2019, his brother Abdullah Al-Bahri said. Speaking on behalf of the family, Abdullah Al-Bahri thanked MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari for "his sincere efforts to help Yasser return to Kuwait after doing his time in the US." Abdullah also thanked Kuwaiti officials' efforts in this regard.

By A Saleh