600 Bedoon Children Denied Admission to Local Schools
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SUBSCRIPTION WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014 THULHIJA 21, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net 600 bedoon children denied Max 38º Min 23º admission to local schools High Tide 03:01 & 17:38 Kids without birth certificates crammed in makeshift classrooms Low Tide 10:40 & 22:37 40 PAGES NO: 16313 150 FILS By Hussain Mahmoud Hajji conspiracy theories KUWAIT: Sitting in the front row of the classroom, 8- year-old Yousef diligently copies the English alphabet Schooling off the whiteboard, his tongue stuck out in concentra- tion. He raises his hands and asks if he can recite them; his teacher nods. He starts: A D C D E H - his teacher for all stops and corrects him. He giggles, looking around at his classmates in embarrassment before he starts over again. Yousef is among a group of bedoon children who were refused registration at school this year. He current- ly studies at a makeshift school set up by volunteers at the Jahra offices of the Kuwait Teachers Association. The By Badrya Darwish head of the initiative, Ahmed Al-Khulaifi, explained the recent dilemma which affects over 600 bedoon kids. “Before the beginning of the school year, the Central Agency for Illegal Residents (CAIR), which was formed [email protected] and tasked to resolve the issue of bedoons in 2006, gave instructions to the Ministry of Education banning the registration of any student who does not have a birth certificate,” he said. t’s a shame that someone in the government is now That is the rub since bedoons are not given birth cer- depriving around 600 bedoon children from education. I’m sure most of you readers know what bedoon means tificates. They are given a birth slip at the hospital - a I paper stating that the mother delivered a healthy child. - stateless. The bedoon issue has been an enigma for Kuwait for In normal scenarios, this slip is submitted together with many years and I don’t know why it cannot be resolved. the marriage certificate and other legal documents in Committee after committee, parliament after parliament, order to obtain a birth certificate for the child. For government after government. All of them promise that it bedoon parents, who have few or no legal documents, KUWAIT: Yousef, an 8-year-old bedoon boy, attends classes in a makeshift classroom at the Jahra offices of obtaining a birth certificate is impossible. is a priority on their agenda to resolve this problem once the Kuwait Teachers Association. and for all. But they all come up with half solutions. Half Continued on Page 5 solutions are not solutions. It’s not even good for the secu- rity of the country. When you make people live in poverty PAGE PAGE and deprivation and without hope, you will turn them into Amid oil glut, Saudis UN chief Ban visits criminals, and if not criminals, violent people. Or at least disgruntled and unhappy persons. And in a society as avoid past mistakes war-scarred Gaza small and closed as Kuwait, the effect will be felt deeply. I don’t know why the government can’t just come down and solve it. Choose the ones you want to stay and give them nationality and for the rest - set rules for them. Qatar emir meets Saudi king to end rift Either they are treated like expats or deported. It’s not nuclear science. But don’t let people live in misery. Depriving 600 children - or even six children - to me is ruthless and inhumane. What children have to do with it, Riyadh, Tehran swap accusations even if their fathers are guilty of whatever? Because according to some sources, these 600 children and their DUBAI: Qatar’s emir told Saudi Arabia’s Arab Emirates (UAE) recalled their ambas- families have some security issues. But by depriving these King Abdullah this week his country had sadors to Qatar in March, accusing Doha kids and leaving them at home, I think you will have more done everything it could to resolve a dis- of failing to abide by an accord not to Former colleague kills security issues. You are creating more people completely pute over Doha’s links with Islamist interfere in each other’s internal affairs. disaffected from the system. groups, but the monarch appeared The dispute centres on the role of Islamist US contractor in Riyadh During the dark days of the invasion of Kuwait, I hap- unconvinced, a Gulf security source said groups, and in particular Egypt’s outlawed pened to be with my three children in London. Of course, I yesterday. The source said Emir Sheikh Muslim Brotherhood, in the GCC and the WASHINGTON: The gunman who shot shootout with Saudi security forces, said couldn’t leave my children without education waiting for Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani flew to wider region. and killed an American and wounded a statement released in Washington on our beloved country to be liberated. So I went to the near- Jeddah on Monday for two hours of talks Gulf officials say the three countries, another in Riyadh was a disgruntled for- behalf of the Saudi Embassy. Rashid, 24, est school and enrolled them. To my surprise, when I met on the dispute in the US-allied Gulf who along with Kuwait, Oman and Qatar mer employee of defense contractor was recently dismissed from his job for the registrar, I had a hundred questions on my mind about Cooperation Council (GCC), an unusual make up the GCC, want Doha to end all Vinnell Arabia and a US-Saudi citizen, a drug-related issues, the statement said, what shall I tell them. Will they accept my kids or not? We schism among the Arab world’s wealthiest financial and political support for the US diplomat said. The victims of yester- citing the Saudi Interior Ministry for that don’t have residency. She might ask me about my finan- countries that has ramifications across the Brotherhood, which has been declared a day’s shooting at a gas station in the information. cial position, etc. Middle East. terrorist organisation by Saudi Arabia. “In Saudi capital also worked at Vinnell Earlier, the State Department had I was not asked any of these questions. Because to Saudi authorities did not appear to be the meeting, Tamim basically wanted to Arabia, said the diplomat, ruling out ter- confirmed that there had been a shoot- them, a child has to be in school regardless of the status of completely convinced by the young tell the King that Qatar has met all the rorism as a possible motive for the ing at a petrol station near from the the parents. I was not asked to prove anything, not even emir’s comments, said the source, who conditions that the King asked for and this attack. company’s Riyadh base, adding that the show the passport of my kids or the birth certificate. She asked not to be named because of the should be enough to bring a formal end The gunman, Abdulaziz Fahad US embassy was reviewing overall secu- Abdulaziz Al-Rashid, was taken into rity. just asked the names, address and telephone number in sensitivity of the topic. He did not elabo- to the rift,” said the Jeddah-based source. police custody after being injured a Continued on Page 13 case of emergency and the grades they had reached in rate. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Continued on Page 13 their country. And I was told even if my children needed help in English, they would receive free tutoring outside of their standard classes for free. As I’m talking about education for kids, our hope is that Govt denies Cabinet rifts, our MPs and government look at the system in other advanced nations because I always set Kuwait among the prisoner escape attempt advanced countries. It’s not only these 600 unfortunate bedoon children. For your information, there are a lot of KUWAIT: Media reports on alleged differ- Separately, The Ministry of Interior dis- expats whose parents cannot afford to pay the fees of pri- ences of opinion among members of the missed as false a report by a local newspa- vate schools and the children are kept home, waiting for Cabinet in its recent meeting regarding per on an escape attempt by an Iranian charitable people to gather money to send them to revoking citizenships of some individuals is prisoner sentenced to death while he was school. It’s a shame that this happens in my country which totally unfounded and baseless, State taken to court. The report which claimed is considered an oil-rich country. Minister for Cabinet Affairs and Acting that the Iranian prisoner managed to undo Education was free for all expats some years ago and Minister of Justice Sheikh Mohammad Al- his handcuffs and escape out of the win- then it was stopped. If it was a big burden on the govern- Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said yester- dow of a police van is totally untrue and ment to teach expats, at least control the fees of private day. He emphasized that the subject of citi- groundless, the statement issued by the schools or give help to certain categories of lower-income zenship revocations was not even on the Ministry of Interior said yesterday. The min- earners. Something can be sorted out. But it is a shame agenda of the Cabinet meeting on istry also urged the media to double check that children are not given an education regardless. It Monday. The reports were entirely a fabri- the accuracy of the news it publishes.