Gulf nations face questions over unwillingness to accept Syrians

Criticism of nearby nations' reluctance to take in fellow Arabs mounts within region

As hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees languish in camps or risk their lives to reach Europe, questions are being asked about why wealthy Gulf states have accepted so few.

By the end of August, more than 4 million Syrians had fled their country, but very few 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 of modern times unfolds, are fellow Arab countries, with similar cultural and religious values and a relative proximity compared to Europe, doing little to help resettle people?

And, crucially, that criticism is being voiced not just in the West, but within the region itself.

In recent days, 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 Gulf countries have to be ashamed when they see Europe's doors open to Syrian refugees, while they close before us," Abu Mohammed, a 30-year-old Syrian refugee now 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 organize the relocation of tens of thousands more.

But in the oil-rich Gulf, GCC states have been absent from talk of helping with the refugee crisis.

"Tragically, the cash-rich Gulf countries have not yet issued a statement on the crisis - much less come up with a strategy to help the migrants, who are overwhelmingly Muslim," Qatar's Gulf Times newspaper wrote in a recent editorial.

Sultan Al Qassemi, a prominent Emirati blogger, wrote that the time had come for Gulf countries to take the "moral, ethical and responsible step" of changing their policy toward accepting refugees.

Even the distraught father of Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed ashore in Turkey, said at the funeral of his wife and two children: "I want Arab governments, not European countries, to see what happened to my children and, because of them, help people."

Still, analysts say the outpouring of criticism is unlikely to bring about any quick changes in GCC countries, none of which has signed the UN Convention on Refugees setting standards for the treatment and rights of those fleeing to a new country.

(China Daily 09/08/2015 page12)