Refugee crisis: Why aren't Gulf states taking them in?

[Sally]

Looks like the Gulf States don't want to be criticized over this refugee issue.

Refugee crisis: Why aren't Gulf states taking them in?

(CNN)They've risked their lives to escape war in Syria. Most of Europe has struggled to deal with their masses, and has at least tried to answer a humanitarian call of a magnitude not seen since World War II.

But no Syrian refugees have been resettled in Persian Gulf nations like Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, countries with significant financial and political interest in Syria.

"Other countries need to do more," tweeted Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. He called those wealthy countries' inaction on the Syrian refugee crisis "shameful."


Officials in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE defend themselves by noting that each has given millions of dollars to the United Nations to help the refugees. The UAE says it's given more than $530 million in relief aid. They stress that Syrians have entered Gulf states on visas, and stayed.

And they also employ a "What about them?" defense, noting that the Gulf states aren't the only nations not helping give homes to victims of war. Amnesty International points out that other high-income countries like Russia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea have offered zero resettlement options.



No concept of refugee in Gulf states


The U.N. has been direct. It wants all nations which are developed to open their borders.

It's more than a matter of generosity; it's also practical, some argue. Gulf citizens have much in common with Syrians. They speak Arabic, like most Syrians. And those states are wealthier than many countries, such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, that have accepted refugees.

Some say Saudi Arabia and Qatar have an obligation to help victims of a war in which those nations have been involved through their financial support of rebel groups that have fought Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Frustrated migrants break through police lines in Hungary

The Syrian civil war began in 2011 at the fever pitch of the Arab Spring revolutions that deposed dictators in Egypt and Libya, amid optimism that the people could, if they mobilized, win previously unheard-of freedoms. Protesters gathered to try to vocalize that dream, asking the Assad government to be more open. Al-Assad met that expression with violence, and as months went by, the conflict grew more complicated, with foreign fighters and people of varying desires thrown into a very messy conflation. ISIS exploited that chaos and moved in, killing and torturing anyone who opposed the extreme Islamists.

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Refugee crisis: Europe takes many; Gulf states take none - CNN.com?

 

[Mr. H.]

How many are crashing on YOUR couch?

Go pretend somewhere else.