KUWAIT CITY (Dispatches) -- Kuwait has revoked the citizenship of 415 more people, including a billionaire businessman, under six new decrees published in the official gazette, the latest escalation in a sweeping crackdown that has stripped tens of thousands of their nationality and left many stateless.

The decrees, published in Kuwait Al-Youm, also apply to individuals who acquired citizenship through the affected persons as dependents, meaning the true number impacted is far higher.

One decree alone stripped nationality from 286 people, while others targeted groups of 6, 14, 25, 41 and 43 individuals.

Among those named is Mahmoud Haider, a billionaire investor who built his fortune in jewelry before expanding into real estate, media, oil and gas. Authorities allege he fraudulently obtained Kuwaiti nationality, identifying his origin as Iranian under the name Mahmood Haji. His assets, corporate holdings and bank accounts are now under investigation.

The campaign, launched in 2024 under Emir Mishal Al Ahmad Al Sabah, was ostensibly designed to eliminate fraudulently obtained citizenship and dual nationality, which is prohibited under Kuwaiti law. But rights groups say it has been applied broadly, with little transparency and no meaningful avenue for appeal.

By August 2025, independent monitors recorded more than 50,000 people stripped of their citizenship, representing roughly 4.6 percent of Kuwait’s citizen population.

The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls reported that between 40,000 and 60,000 individuals had been affected as of August 2025, with women disproportionately targeted—particularly those who had naturalized through marriage to Kuwaiti men under Article 8 of the 1959 Nationality Law.

The crackdown has intensified. In June 2026 alone, authorities revoked the citizenship of 2,193 individuals, with the government declaring it would also strip anyone who acquired nationality through them by dependency.

Under Kuwaiti law, foreign wives were required to renounce their original nationality to secure Kuwaiti citizenship. When their new status was revoked, they were left with nothing.

An Iraqi human rights official told Rudaw that over 2,000 Iraqi women have lost their Kuwaiti citizenship since the campaign began. More than 100 are from Basra province alone.

“They currently live as stateless individuals with no rights, stranded like prisoners in Kuwait,” said Mahdi al-Tamimi, director of the Basra office of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights.

Their bank accounts and cards have been frozen, their assets seized, and because Kuwait’s healthcare system is linked to a smart civil ID card, they cannot even visit a hospital.

The crackdown has drawn sharp condemnation from international bodies. Amnesty International reported that the Kuwaiti authorities “continued a campaign of citizenship revocations,” with “tens of thousands of people, mostly women,” stripped of their nationality.

It noted that Parliament remained suspended, allowing legislative changes to be imposed by decree without oversight.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern over the amendments’ impact on stateless Bidoon residents and urged Kuwait to ensure that human rights defenders are not subjected to arbitrary deprivation of nationality.