"Biometrics" Opens a 61-Year-Old File
- (M), born in 1939, obtained Kuwaiti citizenship in 1965 under Article One, based on witness testimony.
- In 1967, he acquired citizenship for his three brothers based on witness statements.
- A review of biometric records revealed that he had never provided biometrics, holds no passport, and has had no recorded travel movements since 1990.
- Two of his brothers also show no entry or exit movements, hold no identities, and have no registered children.
- The fourth brother (B) has a different status... his file is active, and he registered his first son in 1975.
- He cited a clerical error to justify the discrepancy between his name on the Gulf marriage contract and his name on Kuwaiti documents.
- In 2006, he submitted a request to relinquish his Gulf documents, revealing that his "Gulf" name was his actual name.
- Investigations revealed that he obtained Gulf identity in 1959... eight years before obtaining Kuwaiti citizenship.
- The total number of dependents under file (B) amounts to 105 individuals... approximately 80 of them left Kuwait after realizing the truth had been exposed.
- Citizenship was revoked from him, his dependents, and the three alleged brothers due to the failure to prove their actual existence.
- Five pieces of evidence:
1. Citizenship obtained based on a brother, which is not permissible.
2. Concealment of Gulf citizenship and submission of false statements.
3. Obtaining "Gulf" citizenship prior to "Kuwaiti" citizenship.
4. Lack of actual movement on the files of his alleged brothers.
5. Departure of some of his sons from Kuwait to their Gulf country.
The threads of the case began with four "brothers": (M), (S), (A), and (B), and ended decades later with the exposure of a Gulf identity that preceded the acquisition of Kuwaiti citizenship, along with a real name that was claimed in the 1970s to be merely a "clerical error," before subsequent documents proved it to be the same name the individual bore in his Gulf records.
The file dates back to (M), born in 1939, who obtained Kuwaiti citizenship in 1965 under Article One, based on witness testimony that his father was present in Kuwait before 1920. When questioned by the committee at the time about his children, he admitted to having three sons, none of whom had yet reached the age of 18.
In 1967, (M) submitted a request to the committee to naturalize three individuals as his brothers: (S), (A), and (B), relying on witness testimony to prove their sibling relationship. Kuwaiti citizenship was granted to the three in the same year.
Nearly six decades later, the Citizenship Investigations Department reopened the file as part of its scrutiny of files belonging to living individuals who had not provided biometric data, particularly cases involving fathers and sons who had not provided biometrics. It emerged that, according to state records, (M) is still alive, but he has never provided biometrics, has not obtained a passport, and has had no recorded movements since at least the 1990 invasion.
These data raised suspicions. An examination of his file revealed that he had been the witness relied upon by the three individuals to obtain citizenship in 1967, prompting investigators to dismantle their files one by one.
It emerged that (S) had no entry or exit movements, held no identities, and had no registered children, making him appear as a name existing only on paper without proof of actual existence. Meanwhile, file (A) similarly showed no recorded movements since the 1990 invasion.
In contrast, the situation for (B) was entirely different. His file was active; he obtained various official identities, had entry and exit movements, and had 22 sons registered under his name, in addition to subsequent dependents. This led investigators to focus on his file and request his national archive, which contains his historical data.
The archive, which encompasses all historical records, revealed that his actual official career began in 1975, when, eight years after acquiring citizenship (obtained in 1967), he applied to register his first child. To complete the registration, he submitted a notarized marriage certificate issued in one of the Gulf states. However, the certificate bore his true name, as recorded in the Gulf citizenship he held, rather than his Kuwaiti name.
The discrepancy did not go unnoticed at the time. In 1975, citizenship officials interrogated him regarding the name discrepancy. He claimed that the name on the marriage certificate was merely a “material error” due to the document being handwritten. He subsequently rectified the name by obtaining a new Kuwaiti marriage certificate bearing the name registered in his citizenship certificate, thereby enabling him to complete the registration of his children at that time.
However, current scrutiny has brought this incident back into the spotlight, following revelations that (B) applied to the Citizenship Administration in 2006 to renounce his Gulf documents. It emerged that the name he described three decades prior as a “material error” was, in fact, his true name as recorded in those documents.
Investigations also revealed that he obtained his Gulf identity in 1959, eight years before acquiring Kuwaiti citizenship in 1967. This confirmed that he held Gulf citizenship under a different name prior to applying for Kuwaiti citizenship, and that he provided false information during the application process.
1. (B) obtained citizenship based on his brother, which is legally impermissible.
The total number of dependents linked to (B)’s file reached 105 individuals, approximately 80 of whom left Kuwait after realizing the exposure of their true citizenship status.
Based on the investigation findings, the Supreme Committee for Citizenship Verification decided to revoke the citizenship of (M), (S), and (W), citing their failure to provide biometric data, their absence from Kuwait, and irregularities in their citizenship restrictions and certificates. The committee also decided to revoke the citizenship of (B) and all 105 of his dependents.
