Smuggling gangs are distributing detailed guidance to asylum seekers on how to claim refuge in the United Kingdom by presenting themselves as stateless members of Kuwait’s Bidoon community, according to a recent investigation.
A 25-page document, shared via Telegram and other encrypted messaging services, sets out what it describes as a “100 per cent guaranteed way” to secure asylum in Britain. Written in Arabic, it provides a step-by-step script for applicants to use when describing their background and experiences to UK immigration officials, irrespective of whether they are in fact Bidoon.
“Bidoon” – sometimes spelled “Bedoon” – is Arabic for “without nationality” or “without citizenship”. The term is commonly used to describe stateless Arabs in Kuwait, many of whom are descended from nomadic tribes and were not granted citizenship following Kuwaiti independence in 1961. The group is not formally recognised as a distinct nationality by Kuwait.
The leaked manual anticipates the questions likely to be asked in asylum interviews and instructs applicants how to answer them. It includes extensive background material on Kuwait, from national history and monuments to telephone networks and even the colour of police vehicles, in an apparent effort to equip users to withstand basic credibility checks.
The text explicitly advises claimants to assert that they have “no birth certificate” and that neither they nor their family possess official documents “because we are stateless”. It directs them to tell officials: “I have no official papers”, and notes that the personal narrative can be adjusted “depending on your case, circumstances and age”.
The document also provides a series of short phrases to be memorised and repeated during interviews, such as “in Kuwait no passports for Bidoon”, “no school”, “no hospital”, “police beat us” and “I had to leave”. Similar wording has appeared in previous media reporting on Bidoon asylum claims originating from migrant camps in northern France.
Official data indicate that claims linked to Kuwait and statelessness have risen sharply in recent years. Between the years ending June 2021 and June 2025, 5,272 people from Kuwait applied for asylum in the UK, almost double the 2,874 applicants recorded over the previous two decades. Over the same period, the grant rate for Kuwaiti applicants increased from 41 per cent to 81 per cent.
Claims by stateless individuals more broadly reached a record high in the year ending June 2025, rising from 287 to 1,418. The acceptance rate for such cases climbed to 92.1 per cent, having averaged 43.1 per cent in the 2010s.
In its 2024 country policy and information note on “Kuwait – Bidoons”, the Home Office recognises the Bidoon as a stateless Arab minority and a particular social group within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The guidance draws a distinction between documented Bidoon, who are generally considered at lower risk of persecution, and undocumented Bidoon, who are assessed as potentially facing treatment amounting to persecution or serious harm.
To qualify for protection, applicants are expected to demonstrate that they genuinely lack Kuwaiti nationality, possess no valid official documentation, and are subject to systemic denial of basic rights, discrimination or threats of serious harm. The policy note also cautions that some individuals may seek to exploit this framework, stating that “some people may claim to be Bidoon when they are nationals of another country, such as Iraq”.
Those concerns are reflected in recent and historic casework. An immigration and asylum tribunal last year found that a 29-year-old Iraqi national had falsely claimed to be an undocumented Kuwaiti Bidoon, despite having previously admitted Iraqi nationality while travelling through Greece and Germany.
The Home Office was first alerted to the risk of fraudulent Bidoon claims more than a decade ago. A 2014 report on refugee family reunion applications handled in Pretoria, Istanbul and Amman set out findings from Jordanian authorities, who had identified individuals falsely presenting themselves as Bidoon. Investigators found that some applicants gave implausible accounts of journeys from Kuwait to Jordan and submitted forged documents, and that many “appeared to know little or nothing of Kuwait”.
Further checks revealed that multiple marriage certificates submitted in support of applications purportedly issued by the same mosques in Kuwait had been signed by the same small group of imams. Subsequent inquiries by Kuwaiti officials found that those imams did not exist and that the certificates were absent from official marriage registers. Kuwaiti authorities also assisted in identifying falsified Bidoon birth certificates.
The report also recorded that the Home Office had shared details of 120 UK-based sponsors with recognised Bidoon refugee status with the US embassy in Amman. Of those, 11 were found to have previously applied for US visas using Iraqi identities. The Home Office concluded that the joint investigation with Jordanian and Kuwaiti authorities and the US embassy had “cast serious doubt” on whether the applicants were in fact Kuwaiti Bidoon, and that those doubts were ultimately confirmed in a number of cases.
In response to the latest revelations about coaching manuals, UK Home Office said it employs a range of tools to test the credibility of asylum claims, including biometric checks, fingerprinting, examination of official documentation, language analysis and detailed interviews.
A spokesman said: “We will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system. Manuals like this will not stop the Home Office deporting and removing people who have no claim for asylum. We are spearheading a major reform to the immigration system, both removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to Britain in the first place and making it easier to deport illegal migrants.”
