Saudi Arabia: Situation of Bidoons, including ability to obtain a passport; whether a person born to a Saudi mother and Bidoon father can obtain Saudi citizenship, and would be issued a Saudi passport as a minor (2014-June 2016)

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Situation of Bidoons

According to sources, in the context of Saudi Arabia, the term "Bidoon" refers to stateless people, including the descendants of nomadic tribes who failed to register for Saudi nationality in the past (US 13 Apr. 2016, 29; AFP 18 July 2013). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a US-based researcher specializing in statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa, who is also a former University of Michigan fellow with the UNHCR office in Amman, stated that Bidoons are considered "illegal residents" by the Saudi government and are not eligible for Saudi citizenship (Researcher 26 May 2016).

Sources report that Bidoons in Saudi Arabia are "marginalized" and remain the "poorest" segment of the Saudi population (IOS n.d.; US 13 Apr. 2016, 29). According to the researcher, Bidoons in Saudi Arabia face "widespread discrimination," including in accessing employment (Researcher 26 May 2016). The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 indicates that the Saudi government "sometimes" denied Bidoons access to education and employment, but that "[i]n recent years, the Ministry of Education encouraged them to attend school" (13 Apr. 2016, 29).

2. Identity Documents

Sources state that Bidoons are issued identity documents, known as "black cards" (AFP 18 July 2013; Researcher 26 May 2016). According to the researcher, the government began to issue these "temporary resident cards" approximately in 2009 (ibid.). Country Reports 2009 also indicate that during that year, Bidoons were issued with "five-year residency permits" (US 11 Mar. 2010, Sec. 2d). A 2013 article on the situation of Bidoons by Agence France-Presse (AFP) also reports that "black cards" with a validity period of 5 years are issued to Bidoons in Saudi Arabia (18 July 2013).

Country Reports 2015 states that these residency permits are issued to Bidoons in order "to facilitate their social integration in government-provided health care and other services, putting them on similar footing with sponsored foreign workers" (US 13 Apr. 2016, 29). The AFP similarly reports that the black card provides them with a social security number that in turn grants access to services (18 July 2013). The researcher specified that only Bidoons who possess the black card "should be able" to access some government services, including "some" educational institutions, and "some" employment; she added that the black card enables them to open "a single bank account" (26 May 2016). However, the AFP article reports that cardholders are not entitled to own property (AFP 18 July 2013).

According to the AFP, "many" stateless persons do not have a black card (ibid.). Sources indicate that the renewal of the black card can take months (ibid.; Researcher 26 May 2016), and that there have been instances where the process can last up to five years (ibid.).

Sources report that in 2014, the Saudi General Directorate of Passports began to issue "special" identity cards to Bidoons (Gulf News 12 Aug. 2014; US 13 Apr. 2016, 29, 30). Without providing further detail, Country Reports 2015 states that the card entitles its holders to "additional government services similar to those available to citizens" (ibid., 30). Similarly, a 2014 article in the Gulf News, an English-language newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), quotes an official from Saudi Arabia's General Directorate of Passports as saying that "[t]he cards ease all procedures and give their holders special benefits as if they were Saudi nationals" (Gulf News 12 Aug. 2014). Further information on these cards could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2.1 Ability of Bidoons to Obtain Saudi Passports

Sources report that Bidoons in Saudi Arabia are not able to obtain passports (IOS n.d.; US 13 Apr. 2016, 29) or to travel abroad (ibid.). The researcher stated that Bidoons who are in possession of a black card would not have a passport, but they may be able to apply for a travel document (Researcher 26 May 2016). However, the source indicated that such a travel document may not give them the right to return to the country (ibid.). Further and corroborating information on travel documents for Bidoons could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Ability of a Person Born to a Saudi Mother and a Bidoon Father to Obtain Saudi Citizenship

Article 7 of the Saudi Arabian Nationality Regulations, 1374 [1954], as amended by the Royal Decree No. 20 of 12/11/1379 [1960], states the following:

A Saudi is the person who is born inside or outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia whose father is a Saudi national; or whose mother is a Saudi national and father of unknown nationality or without nationality; or who is born inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and his parents are unknown … (Saudi Arabia 1954)

In its 2014 report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Saudi government states that following further amendments to the Saudi Arabian nationality law, which was introduced with the Royal Decree No. M/54 of 29/10/1425 [2004] and the "amended implementing regulations" of that law, Article 7 of the Saudi Arabian nationality law states that a person born "to a Saudi mother and a stateless father or a father of unknown nationality … shall be a Saudi national" (ibid. 8 Apr. 2015, para. 93). An article on Saudi nationality that was published in an academic journal on comparative law highlights that according to Saudi law, Saudi mothers can pass their nationality to their children only if the father is stateless or of unknown nationality (Belarbi 2012, 799). Similarly, according to the the UNHCR 2013 submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Universal Periodic Review for Saudi Arabia, "under the [Saudi] nationality law, women are able to confer their nationality to their children in cases where the father is stateless or of unknown nationality" (UN Mar. 2013, 1).

3.1 Implementation of Article 7 of Saudi Arabian Nationality Regulations

In their chapter on nationality legislation in North Africa, published in a book on citizenship studies, Laura van Waas, the manager of the statelessness programme at Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands, and Zahra Albarazi, a researcher within the same program (Van Waas and Albarazi 2014, xi, xx), state that in several Middle Eastern countries, including in Saudi Arabia, "safeguards against childhood statelessness are either lacking or not implemented" (ibid., 208). Similarly, the researcher noted that the provision in Saudi law granting citizenship to persons born to Saudi mothers and stateless fathers "is a commonly used safeguard in the legislation of many countries in the Arab region" but one that is often not implemented in practice (26 May 2016). Country Reports 2015 states, without providing further detail, that a child of a Saudi mother and a stateless father is one of the categories of persons who "may be born stateless" in Saudi Arabia (US 13 Apr. 2016, 29). The researcher expressed the opinion that due to the problems that Bidoons face with accessing documents, a person born to a Saudi mother and a stateless father may face problems proving the status of the stateless parent, which would negatively impact their claim to citizenship (26 May 2016). Further and corroborating information, including instances of children of Saudi mothers and stateless fathers obtaining Saudi citizenship, could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France-Presse (AFP). 18 July 2013. Assad Abboud. "Saudi But Stateless: Born on the Margins of Society." [Accessed 3 June 2016]

Belarbi, Houari. 2012. "La loi de la nationalité arabe saoudienne du 23 septembre 1954 et son application au regard des conventions internationales." Revue internationale de droit comparé. Vol. 64, No. 3. [Accessed 6 June 2016]

Gulf News. 12 August 2014. Habib Toumi. "Saudi Arabia's Stateless Given Special Cards." [Accessed 26 May 2016]

International Observatory on Statelessness (IOS). N.d. "Saudi Arabia." [Accessed 26 May 2016]

Researcher. 26 May 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Saudi Arabia. 8 April 2015. Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention. Combined Third and Fourth Periodic Reports of States Parties Due in 2011. Saudi Arabia. CRC/C/SAU/3-4. [Accessed 6 June 2016]

Saudi Arabia. 1954 (amended 1960). Saudi Arabian Nationality Regulations, 1374 H. [Accessed 24 May 2016]

United Nations. March 2013. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees For the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Compilation Report - Universal Periodic Review: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [Accessed 20 May 2016]

United States (US). 13 April 2016. Department of State. "Saudi Arabia." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015. [Accessed 25 May 2016]

United States (US). 11 March 2010. Department of State. "Saudi Arabia." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2009. [Accessed 1 June 2016]

Van Waas, Laura, and Zahra Albarazi. 2014. "Transformation of Nationality Legislation in North Africa." Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies. Edited by Engin F. Isin and Peter Nyers. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Adala Center; associate professor, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich; Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights; PhD student in sociology, University of California, San Diego; professor of anthropology, American University in Cairo; professor of anthropology, University of California, Davis; research associate, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford; researcher, Institut français du Proche-Orient; Saudi Arabia - embassy in Ottawa, General Department of Passports; UN - High Commissioner for Refugees regional representative in Saudi Arabia.

Internet sites, including: Al Jazeera; Amnesty International; Canadian Centre for Statelessness; ecoi.net; Equality Now; European Network on Statelessness; Deutsche Welle; Factiva; Human Rights First; Human Rights Watch; Keesing Reference Systems; King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies; Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University; International Organization for Migration; Open Society Foundations; Pew Research Center; Refugee International; Tilburg University; UK - Home Office; UN - Children's Emergency Fund, Gender Index, Refworld, ReliefWeb; US - CIA World Factbook, Library of Congress; Women's Refugee Commission.