Illegally in Kuwait and Unwanted Anywhere Else

By Andrew I. Killgore

"Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

—Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN General Assembly Resolution (Dec. 10, 1948), Article 13, Paragraph 2

"Everyone has the right to return to this kingdom, whether by land or by sea."

—The Magna Carta (1215)

"My sister, uncle and grandmother living in Kuwait can't get US visas because, if they leave, they won't be readmitted, and when their visas to the United States expired, they would have nowhere else to go. Can you help me? "

That was the plea in a telephone call from a young Palestinian student friend at Fresno State University in California, whom I'd met a year and a half earlier during a lecture at the university.

The family's situation is reminiscent of Catch 22. The parents, as residents of the Gaza Strip before the Israeli conquest in 1967, hold Palestinian Refugee Documents issued by Egypt, which administered the Strip between 1948 and June 1967.

The uncle and grandmother also hold Palestinian Refugee Documents issued in Gaza before the family left for Kuwait. My student friend and his sister, also at Fresno State, and another sister in Kuwait hold Refugee Documents issued by the Egyptian Embassy in Kuwait.

During its exile in Taif, Saudi Arabia however, the government of Kuwait cancelled all Kuwaiti Residence Permits, including those held by my student friend and all of his immediate family members. In these circumstances, all of the family members in Kuwait are there illegally. The student and his sister cannot return to Kuwait, and they have nowhere else to go.

The parents in Kuwait hold valid American non-immigrant visas. They could leave for the US immediately, butthis would mean leaving behind their daughter, the grandmother and the uncle who, as an invalid, is directly supported by the student's father.

None of the family can return to Gaza because Israel, as the occupying power, would not accept them. Nor, under present circumstances, can any family members go to Jordan or Egypt without valid visas. These, at present, are very hard to get.

So what is the answer for Gazans in Kuwait? They can't stay on illegally, and they have nowhere else to go. These are the most bidun (without) of all the bidunis in Kuwait.

Most Palestinians in Kuwait face a seemingly bleak future. But those who came from Jordan, Syria or Lebanon at least have a place they can return to, even if it's not the land of their birth. But not those from Gaza.

The situation is reminiscent of Catch 22.

On a visit to my old haunts at the Department of State, I sought the advice of a knowledgeable friend. "I would not be authorized to tell them this directly," the friend said, "but I can tell you. They should find a good American friend who will ask his or her congress member to sponsor a private bill in the Congress to admit those family members still stuck in Kuwait.

"As a humanitarian matter, this works in a surprising number of cases. The Congress looks awful, but as individuals and even as a group, members have a heart."

Another thought, of course, occurs to me. It would save those good-hearted members of Congress a lot of time and effort. What about self-determination for the Palestinians, so that these people, wherever they are in the world, can go back to their own country just like anyone else—if that's what they want to do?

Andrew L Killgore, former US ambassador to the state of Qatar, is publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.