Kuwait to scrap 2,400 expat teachers’ iqamas

Cairo: Kuwait’s education authorities have asked the country’s Interior Ministry to revoke the residency permits of around 2,400 foreign teachers, including 1,900 teachers whose services were terminated under a plan replacing them with Kuwaitis.

The 500 others have presented their resignation, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas, citing what it termed as well-informed sources.

“The Human Resource Department at the Education Ministry is keen to finalise as soon as possible procedures for the non-Kuwaiti teachers whose services discontinue by the end of the current school year to spare them any fines or fees,” the sources said.

These procedures are related to settlement of their financial entitlements and iqama cancellation.

“The ministry is also keen on avoiding delay in finalising measures for the iqama cancellation transactions to enable these teachers to travel to their own countries in time,” they added.

The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry will, meanwhile, give the expatriate teachers, whose services have been terminated, a three-month deadline to settle their entitlements and status as a whole in the country.

Kuwaiti education authorities are going ahead with a replacement plan, adopted three months ago, whereby foreign teachers are replaced with Kuwaitis, the sources said, dismissing as baseless claims that replacement decisions are on hold for one year.

In recent years, Kuwait has stepped up efforts to create jobs for its citizens and replace foreign employees as part of policy dubbed “kuwaitisation”.

Foreigners make up nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s overall population of 4.6 million.

The numbers of new expatriates employed at Kuwait’s government agencies dropped by 70 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous four years amid increasing employment of Kuwaitis, according to official figures.