KUWAIT: END DISCRIMINATION AGAINST STATELESS BIDUN CHILDREN IN THEIR RIGHT TO EDUCATION

The Kuwaiti government is discriminating against native but stateless Bidun children by failing to provide them with equal and free education, Amnesty International said today as it releases a new report ahead of the start of the new school year. 

The report, “I Don’t Have a Future”: Stateless Kuwaitis and the Right to Education, details how the government forces Bidun children, who are born into statelessness in Kuwait, to pay for private education that is considered by parents and children to be inferior to the free government schools attended by Kuwaiti citizens. 

Bidun children are born in Kuwait, often to parents and grandparents who were also born in the country but are not recognized as Kuwaiti nationals by the government. As a result, they are stateless and subject to a host of socio-economic disadvantages. 

“Kuwait is a party to a number of international treaties that recognize the right of all children living in the country to receive free and equal education without discrimination, yet the authorities refuse to guarantee that right when it comes to Bidun children,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. 

“For more than a generation, the government has treated this population as so-called ‘illegal residents’ and denied their children access to free government schools attended by Kuwaiti children – this is clear discrimination. Amnesty International calls on the Kuwaiti government to end its systematic and widespread discrimination against the Bidun.” 

The report is based on interviews conducted in four Kuwaiti governorates in June 2022 as well as reviews of Kuwaiti laws and policy decisions, local press reports, Kuwaiti government reports and statistics, and submissions to UN bodies. 

 The government has treated this population as so-called ‘illegal residents’ and denied their children access to free government schools attended by Kuwaiti children – this is clear discrimination.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa

Forced into ill-equipped private schools 

Kuwait offers free primary and secondary school education to all recognized Kuwaiti nationals in government schools and also pays for higher education for recognized nationals who attain the required grades. 

Bidun parents and children described to Amnesty International their experience of private schools they were forced to use, with pupils crammed into classes of over 50 students to a room, sometimes without air conditioning, and computer classes without enough computers for the students. Yet families have nonetheless been required to pay a significant part of their incomes for these private schools.  

Since 1987, the Kuwaiti government has officially labelled the Bidun as “illegal residents” even if they – and preceding generations of their family – were born in Kuwait. Bidun children are only granted access to free government schools in exceptional cases, such as if they are children or grandchildren of Bidun men who served in the army or police. 

The Bidun fall into various administrative categories, depending on which combination of identity documents they can obtain, and this affects their access to education, among other rights. 

“It’s like our country doesn’t want us” 

Amnesty International spoke to Bidun children who live across the street from a free government school but have to travel to a for-profit school more than two kilometres away, which the students said was unclean and in poor condition. 

“It’s like our country doesn’t want us,” said “Farida” (a pseudonym), a 15-year-old Bidun girl.  

“They are not schools, they are pens,” said Khalifa al-Enezi, a Bidun man with four children in private schools. “The squalor found in the bathrooms, the dirtiness, the lack of care. There is no hygiene. But as a Bidun, you are forced to resort to this.” 

Bidun parents said they struggled to afford these private schools, and some did not have the means to send their children to school every year.  

“They are not schools, they are pens,” said Khalifa al-Enezi, a Bidun man with four children in private schools. “The squalor found in the bathrooms, the dirtiness, the lack of care. There is no hygiene. But as a Bidun, you are forced to resort to this.” 

Five families interviewed by Amnesty International said at least one member of their family had not received an education because of a lack of funds or identity documents.  

They are not schools, they are pens,” said Khalifa al-Enezi, a Bidun man with four children in private schools. “The squalor found in the bathrooms, the dirtiness, the lack of care. There is no hygiene. But as a Bidun, you are forced to resort to this.” 

Khalifa al-Enezi, a Bidun man with four children

Restricted by a quota 

Recognized Kuwaiti nationals who obtain the required grades are eligible to study at Kuwait University for free, and the state also pays for their education if they are accepted into universities abroad. 

By contrast Bidun students are admitted to Kuwait University only under a relatively small admissions quota. Moreover, Kuwait University will only admit Bidun students who have a valid government ID card. Many Bidun, however, do not register with the government agency that supplies the cards, or cease renewing the one-year card it issues because the agency may arbitrarily assign them with another nationality. 

Four Bidun individuals showed Amnesty International documentary evidence of how the government changed their nationality when they renewed their cards, including arbitrarily marking three as “Iraqi”.  

The ultimate resolution to the plight of the Bidun requires ending their statelessness; in the meantime, Kuwait must take immediate action to ensure that Bidun children have equal access to quality education.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa

“The ultimate resolution to the plight of the Bidun requires ending their statelessness; in the meantime, Kuwait must take immediate action to ensure that Bidun children have equal access to quality education,” said Heba Morayef. 

Background 

The Bidun are a stateless population in Kuwait. According to government estimates, there are around 100,000 Bidun individuals in the country. 

Registration of Kuwaiti nationals, which ended in 1965, focused on areas in the centre of the country, especially around Kuwait City. The government did not automatically include tribes in outlying areas or inform them of the importance of obtaining Kuwaiti citizenship. 

The situation of the Bidun was exacerbated in 1980 when Kuwait changed its nationality law to deny recognition of nationality to the children of stateless fathers, even if the mother is a recognized Kuwaiti national. 

Kuwait’s systematic discrimination against the Bidun violates its legal obligations, including under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.