Can a Passport Solve Statelessness Without Citizenship?

Introduction

The Comoros passport affair became controversial not simply because passports were issued, but because of what those passports were meant to achieve. For thousands of stateless Gulf residents known as the Bidoon, Comorian nationality was presented as a practical solution to a long-running legal problem. On paper, a person who lacked any nationality could become a citizen of Comoros and receive a passport. In reality, many recipients had never lived in Comoros, had no social ties to the islands, and were not expected to relocate there. Critics argued that the arrangement transformed stateless people into foreign nationals on paper while leaving many of the underlying problems of exclusion, insecurity and limited rights unresolved.[statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com]statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.comStatelessness & Citizenship ReviewProhibition of Deportation for Bidoons with Comoros PassportsAugust 21, 2024 — by HU Marambio · 2024 ·…Published: August 21, 2024

The episode sits at the intersection of citizenship policy, state documentation and political image management. It is relevant to the history of contested truth in Comoros because official documents appeared to solve a problem that, according to many researchers and human-rights advocates, remained largely unchanged beneath the paperwork.[statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com]statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.comStatelessness & Citizenship ReviewProhibition of Deportation for Bidoons with Comoros PassportsAugust 21, 2024 — by HU Marambio · 2024 ·…Published: August 21, 2024

Can a Passport Solve Statelessness Without Citizenship?

The central idea behind the scheme was deceptively simple. If a stateless person could be assigned a recognised nationality, governments would no longer have to classify that individual as stateless. Comoros, through its economic citizenship programme, offered a nationality that could be granted to people who had no meaningful connection to the country. Gulf governments and officials promoting the arrangement argued that this would provide documentation, legal identity and a route out of statelessness.[odi.org]odi.orgThink changeCash for citizenship: rich Arab countries may pay poor…15 Nov 2016 — A deal that would grant Comorian citizenship to…

For critics, however, the distinction between legal status and lived reality was crucial. A passport can prove that a state recognises someone as a citizen, but citizenship is also a bundle of practical rights, political membership and social belonging. Many Bidoon who received or were offered Comorian nationality continued to live in the Gulf rather than in Comoros. Their day-to-day position depended far more on Gulf residency rules than on their formal connection to the Indian Ocean archipelago.[globalcit.eu]globalcit.euComoran citizenship for bidoonsJanuary 11, 2018 — 11 Jan 2018 — The forcing of the bidoons to accept Comoran passports has raise…Published: January 11, 2018

This created what scholars and campaigners often describe as a form of “documentary nationality”: a citizenship that exists primarily in administrative records and travel documents rather than through participation in a national community.[globalcit.eu]globalcit.euaffect, citizenship, statelessness and the Kuwaiti BidoonThe Kuwaiti bidoon are a subset of the nomadic population of Kuwait who…

Why Gulf Governments Wanted a Foreign Nationality

The Bidoon issue has challenged Gulf governments for decades. Large numbers of people in Kuwait and smaller numbers elsewhere in the region have long claimed entitlement to local citizenship but remain classified as non-citizens or stateless residents. Their status has attracted criticism from international organisations and human-rights groups.[Wikipedia]WikipediaOpen source on wikipedia.org.

Against that background, Comorian nationality offered several attractions to policymakers:[Wikipedia]WikipediaComorian nationality lawComorian nationality law

• Administrative clarity: A person recorded as a Comorian citizen could be classified as a foreign resident rather than a stateless individual.
• International optics: Governments facing criticism over stateless populations could argue that affected individuals now possessed a recognised nationality.
• Migration control: Authorities could regulate residency through ordinary immigration systems rather than through special arrangements for stateless people.
• Political compromise: The scheme appeared to avoid granting large numbers of people full citizenship in wealthier Gulf states.[opiniojuris.org]opiniojuris.orgkuwait bulk orders comoros citizenship stateless bidoonsOpinio JurisKuwait Bulk-Orders Comoros Citizenship for Stateless…13 Nov 2014 — Kuwait has long been criticized for its refusal to exte…

The proposal became particularly associated with Kuwait, where discussions about granting Comorian nationality to large numbers of Bidoon drew international attention in the mid-2010s. Although the most ambitious plans encountered political resistance and were never fully realised in their original form, the broader idea influenced debates across the Gulf.[Opinio Juris]opiniojuris.orgkuwait bulk orders comoros citizenship stateless bidoonsOpinio JurisKuwait Bulk-Orders Comoros Citizenship for Stateless…13 Nov 2014 — Kuwait has long been criticized for its refusal to exte…

In the United Arab Emirates, Comorian passports were reportedly issued to some stateless residents through arrangements connected to the economic citizenship programme. Human-rights observers later questioned whether possession of these passports genuinely improved recipients’ legal security.[statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com]statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.comStatelessness & Citizenship ReviewProhibition of Deportation for Bidoons with Comoros PassportsAugust 21, 2024 — by HU Marambio · 2024 ·…Published: August 21, 2024

What Documentary Citizenship Changed

The programme did produce real changes. It would be misleading to describe every Comorian passport issued under the scheme as fake. Many were genuine state documents issued through recognised channels. The controversy centred on what those documents actually accomplished.[Wikipedia]WikipediaComorian passportComorian passport

For some recipients, the new nationality could provide:

Supporters argued that these were meaningful improvements. Statelessness can make everyday activities—from obtaining official papers to travelling internationally—extremely difficult. From that perspective, any recognised nationality represented progress.[Statelessness & Citizenship Review]statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.comStatelessness & Citizenship ReviewProhibition of Deportation for Bidoons with Comoros PassportsAugust 21, 2024 — by HU Marambio · 2024 ·…Published: August 21, 2024

Yet the practical benefits varied greatly. Receiving Comorian nationality did not automatically grant permanent residence in Comoros, nor did it necessarily create a realistic path to settling there. Most recipients remained where they already lived and continued to depend on local authorities for employment, education, healthcare and residency rights.[statelessness.eu]statelessness.euEuropean Network on StatelessnessInvestor citizenship must not be used as a remedy for…13 Jun 2019 — Once they had obtained the Comori…

Why Critics Said the Plan Moved the Problem

The strongest criticism was that the scheme addressed paperwork rather than belonging.

Human-rights advocates, legal scholars and citizenship researchers argued that the arrangement allowed states to redefine stateless people as foreign nationals without resolving disputes about their connection to the countries where they had been born and lived for generations. In this view, the problem was not the absence of a passport alone but the absence of secure membership in the society where people actually resided.[statelessness.eu]statelessness.euEuropean Network on StatelessnessInvestor citizenship must not be used as a remedy for…13 Jun 2019 — Once they had obtained the Comori…

A recurring concern was that a Comorian passport could weaken claims to local citizenship. Once someone was officially recorded as a foreign national, governments could argue that the person no longer belonged to a stateless population requiring a political solution. Critics therefore described the policy as shifting responsibility from wealthy Gulf states to a distant island nation.[newafricanmagazine.com]newafricanmagazine.comcomoros citizenship salecomoros citizenship sale

Questions also emerged about deportation and residency. If a person became a Comorian citizen on paper but had no practical connection to Comoros, where could that person realistically be expected to live if residency rights elsewhere were withdrawn? Legal scholars examining the issue have highlighted the tension between formal nationality and effective protection.[Statelessness & Citizenship Review]statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.comStatelessness & Citizenship ReviewProhibition of Deportation for Bidoons with Comoros PassportsAugust 21, 2024 — by HU Marambio · 2024 ·…Published: August 21, 2024

The Illusion of Resolution

What makes the Bidoon passport story particularly significant within the wider Comoros passport scandal is that it was not based on forged documents or fabricated identities. The passports were often genuine. The dispute centred on the narrative attached to them.

To supporters, the programme offered a humanitarian and administrative solution to a difficult problem. To critics, it created the appearance of solving statelessness while largely preserving the underlying inequalities that had produced the problem in the first place.[odi.org]odi.orgThink changeCash for citizenship: rich Arab countries may pay poor…15 Nov 2016 — A deal that would grant Comorian citizenship to…

That tension explains why the episode remains controversial. It demonstrates how official documents can shape political reality, and how a passport can carry two very different meanings at once: proof of citizenship in a legal sense, and evidence of unresolved exclusion in a social and political sense. In the history of the Comoros passport affair, the Bidoon nationality scheme became a powerful example of how documentation can change a person’s official status without necessarily changing the deeper question of where that person truly belongs.[globalcit.eu]globalcit.euaffect, citizenship, statelessness and the Kuwaiti BidoonThe Kuwaiti bidoon are a subset of the nomadic population of Kuwait who…

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Further Reading

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Endnotes

1. Source: statelessness.eu
Link:https://www.statelessness.eu/updates/blog/investor-citizenship-must-not-be-used-remedy-statelessness

2. Source: odi.org
Link:https://odi.org/en/insights/cash-for-citizenship-rich-arab-countries-may-pay-poor-islands-to-take-stateless-bidoons/

3. Source: globalcit.eu
Link:https://globalcit.eu/the-problem-with-the-comoros-solution-affect-citizenship-statelessness-and-the-kuwaiti-bidoon/

4. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Comorian passport
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comorian_passport

5. Source: globalcit.eu
Link:https://globalcit.eu/comoran-citizenship-for-bidoons/

Published: January 11, 2018

6. Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedoon

7. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Comorian nationality law
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comorian_nationality_law

8. Source: statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com
Link:https://statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com/index.php/journal/article/download/639/391

Published: August 21, 2024

9. Source: dissentmagazine.org
Title: booked atossa abrahamian cosmopolites global citizen comoros passports
Link:https://dissentmagazine.org/blog/booked-atossa-abrahamian-cosmopolites-global-citizen-comoros-passports/

10. Source: opiniojuris.org
Title: kuwait bulk orders comoros citizenship stateless bidoons
Link:https://opiniojuris.org/2014/11/13/kuwait-bulk-orders-comoros-citizenship-stateless-bidoons/

11. Source: newafricanmagazine.com
Title: comoros citizenship sale
Link:https://newafricanmagazine.com/politics/comoros-citizenship-sale/

Additional References

12. Source: youtube.com
Title: Comoros ex-presidents accused of embezzling millions, selling passports
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu0qPUpruy8

13. Source: youtube.com
Title: How a Tiny Island Nation Ran a Billion Dollar Passport Scam
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3ys9yRhDlc

14. Source: youtube.com
Title: Ex-Comoros president Sambi charged over passport scheme
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMTN4xjqfgY

15. Source: youtube.com
Title: What Happened to Comoros Citizenship by Investment?
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byqhFE6ellc

16. Source: researchgate.net
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390007744_The_problem_with_the_Comoros_solution_affect_citizenship_statelessness_and_the_Kuwaiti_Bidoon

17. Source: uprdoc.ohchr.org
Link:https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile.aspx?file=EnglishTranslation&filename=11123

18. Source: citizenshiprightsafrica.org
Title: kuwaits stateless bidun offered comoros citizenship
Link:https://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/en/kuwaits-stateless-bidun-offered-comoros-citizenship/

19. Source: youtube.com
Title: Stateless Biduns in Kuwait offered Comoros citizenship
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnRZtf7GnA0