E/CN.4/1997/71/Add.2 page 14 58. During this visit, the Special Rapporteur was informed that there were 581 detainees, 39 of whom had arrived that day. Some were accused of having committed crimes, of compromising State security or complicity with the enemy; others were asylum-seekers or were awaiting refoulement as a result of an administrative or judicial decision. 59. A nearby centre housed 177 women prisoners. Male prisoners are permitted to visit their wives and could receive family visits on Wednesdays and Sundays. The period of detention is abnormally long, varying from one week to six years, according to reports based on a survey of the prisoners. Reasons for their detention varied: one said he had “become undocumented” after living and working in Kuwait for 38 years; another, who claimed that his father and grandfather had been born in Kuwait, had been imprisoned for five years for having testified at the trial of his brother, a Kuwaiti accused of collaborating with the enemy; yet another was accused of illegal possession of weapons. 60. It seems that the question of the Bidun could have been settled in the period since independence. A series of commissions examined the problem in 1965, 1975, 1985 and 1991 but postponed solutions by adopting increasingly restrictive measures with regard to the granting of Kuwaiti nationality. Since the invasion of the country, the Government has become even more cautious in dealing with Bidun claims to Kuwaiti nationality. 61. It should be noted that, from 1986 until the Gulf War, Kuwait had no National Assembly. The new National Assembly which was constituted in 1992 and civil society (some of the progressive élite, writers, the press and pro-democracy movements) are pressuring the Government to resolve the problem of the Bidun, which has assumed international proportions owing to the activities of human rights organizations after the liberation as a result of the mobilization of the international community acting through the United Nations. 62. The committee at present responsible for dealing with cases of illegal residents was established in 1993. Its meetings are confidential and as yet no official information has been released. The Special Rapporteur gathered from his meeting with its Chairman that several recommendations for naturalization had been presented to the Government. 63. The authorities seem concerned by the question of the Bidun and have promised to find a definitive solution to the problem so that the term Bidun can be erased from Kuwait's social, economic and human rights vocabulary. Efforts are therefore being made and should be encouraged. III. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 64. The Kuwaiti Government has demonstrated its awareness of these human rights violations and manifestations of racial discrimination and xenophobia. It appears open to and mindful of the criticisms and recommendations made to it with a view to finding a definitive solution to the problem of the Bidun and to improving the legislation on migrant and, in particular, domestic workers.