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Gulf silent on Syrian refugees
Highlights
As hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees languish in camps or risk their lives to reach Europe, questions arise about why wealthy Gulf states have accepted so few.
As hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees languish in camps or risk their lives to reach Europe, questions arise about why wealthy Gulf states have accepted so few.
By the end of August, more than four million Syrians had fled their country but very few if any refugees have been officially accepted by the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have donated billions to help refugees, but are facing increasing scrutiny for their apparent unwillingness to accept migrants.
Why, ask many, as one of the greatest migration crises, are fellow Arab countries, with similar cultural and religious values and a relative proximity compared to Europe, doing little to help resettle people?
Social media users in the Gulf have employed various hashtags including “#Welcoming_Syria’s_refugees_is_a_Gulf_duty” to voice their disgust with the perceived inaction of GCC states. “The countries have to be ashamed when they see Europe’s doors open to Syrian refugees, while they close before us,” Abu Mohammed, a Syrian refugee,living in Jordan, said.
An influx of Syrian refugees has swamped Europe this summer, with Germany alone expecting 800,000 new asylum applications this year and efforts under way to organise the relocations of tens of thousands more.
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