Bahrain Mirror: The Washington Post reported in a report that the "authorities have revoked the citizenship of 103 people so far this year, already more than in 2016."

"Rights activists say authorities have revoked the citizenship of 103 people so far this year, already more than in 2016. All were convicted of terrorism-related crimes in trials that rights activists say lacked due process and transparency," the US-based Washington Post added in its report entitled "Bahrain is Stripping Dissidents of Their Citizenship, and the U.S. is Silent".

The kingdom has stripped 451 people of their citizenship since 2012, according to a tally kept by Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy rights institute.

Those who remain in the kingdom live as stateless people in their own country. Without identity documents, simply driving across an island dotted with police checkpoints can be a dangerous proposition. All lose access to state pensions and state services including health care, as well as the ability to manage their property. They cannot register the births of their children, which means their offspring also cannot get access to state services. Most of those deprived of their citizenship this year are in prison after being convicted under Bahrain's anti-terrorism law.

The pace of citizenship revocations has increased amid an intensifying crackdown on opposition. And activists charge that the silence of the West, particularly the United States and Britain, has emboldened authorities to press ahead with more repressive measures than the kingdom has employed since the response to mass protests in 2011, the Washington Post further added.

"There's absolutely zero pressure for them to reform or do anything that's less than repressive," said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and one of those deprived of his citizenship. That attitude was clear, he said, when President Trump reassured the king of Bahrain at a meeting in May that there would be no "strain" in their relationship.

"This was an indicator that human rights is absolutely not part of the U.S. interests," Alwadaei added in the Washington Post report.

An official at the Bahraini Embassy in Britain said authorities revoke citizenship "in the aim of preserving security and stability while countering threats of terrorism." He further claimed that "revoking citizenship is only done in accordance with the provisions of the law."

The Report also noted the 2011 pro-democracy protests of thousands of demonstrators, that were met with brutal repression and capital detention.

"It's a way of killing your identity, your existence," said Ali Abdulemam, a blogger and activist whose citizenship was revoked in 2015. He now lives in Britain, where he was granted asylum. "Someone thinks he has the authority to tell me that I don't belong to my homeland."

"The concern that we would have is the justice system in Bahrain has proven itself utterly incapable of providing anybody a fair trial, notably in terrorism cases. So the verdicts that they're delivering simply cannot be relied upon either way," said Nicholas McGeehan, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Arabic Version