The Myth That The Gulf Doesn't Help Syrian Refugees

[shaykh]

I'm hardly one to defend regimes in the Middle East.

Like the US where criticism can be laid is these regimes culpability in creating refugees in the first place...

Turkey has nearly 3m Syrians, Lebanon 1.2m, and Jordan has 630,000...

And there are 'refugees' in the Gulf states but because these nations are signatories of the refugee convention they arent counted in UNHCR statistics...

Saudi it is suggested has over 500,000 Syrians but they arent classified as refugees, UAE has given residency permits to over 100,000 Syrians...

Tbf the Gulf are actually treating Syrians better technically...because being a refugee actually limits you...I wrote a piece a while back about the appalling treatment of Palestinian refugees in the Arab states and the Afghan refugees in Iran...in short rights are very limited if you are refugee in terms of things like right to work...refugees are left in camps with shocking conditions, access to education and medical care...in short basic things that human beings should be provided generally are not to many refugees...

Simply listing numbers of refugees as if it is a badge of honour tells only part of the story...one needs to look at how those refugees are being treated...

There are many criticisms to be made of the likes of Saudi but their treatment of Syrians entering the country is not one of them...

 

[enkidu_]

As a socialist I'm against the capitalistic-neoliberal-pseudo conservative dynasties of the Gulf, but the Breitard-like mythology which has popularized this view ("the Gulf hasn't accepted any refugee") has been debunked :

(...)
Over the past several months, we have been constantly fed graphics and analysis like the one below from Luay Al-Khatteeb, a fellow of the Brookings Institution. They have indicated that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE have apparently taken zero Syrian refugees. The claim has been cited by nearly every Western publication. A cursory search returns venerable sources including Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and CNN all falling for the myth.
(...)
A look at Saudi Arabia’s UNHCR page has a few curious footnotes that Western publications are conveniently omitting. The UNHCR counts refugees by noting only those “persons recognized as refugees under the 1951 UN Convention/1967 Protocol, the 1969 OAU Convention, in accordance with the UNHCR Statute, persons granted a complementary form of protection and those granted temporary protection.“ Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE are not parties to any of the UN protocols on refugees, and so through this technicality, they, along with most of their refugees, are excluded from many refugee counting mechanisms.
(...)
With Saudi Arabia’s non-signatory status, the Syrians residing in Saudi Arabia are classified as “Arab brothers and sisters in distress” instead of refugees covered by UN treaties. According to Nabil Othman, the UNHCR regional representative to the Gulf region, there were 500,000 Syrian refugees in Saudi Arabia at the time of his statement. The government itself of Saudi Arabia has stated that it has, over the past five years since the start of the conflict hosted 2.5 million refugees.

Because the noted treaties establish treatment standards for refugees, some might raise concerns regarding the conditions that Saudi Arabia’s refugees may be living in. However, Al-Arabiya, a news outlet based in the UAE, has noted that “Saudi authorities granted Syrians the right of residency and work, and provided them with education and health services for free.” According to the Saudi government, over 100,000 children are currently receiving education in the country’s schools. Saudi Arabia is not alone in attempts to provide education for the refugees, with Lebanon now providing schooling for another 100,000 child refugees.
(...)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anhvinh-doanvo/europes-crisis-refugees_b_8175924.html

 

[tonmoy]

It is NOT a myth... it is true that gulf countries do not help these refugees.

Turkey Lebanon and Jordan are not GCC countries

The 500 thousand syrians that you are suggesting is in Saudi , may I ask how many of them came to Saudi after the war as refugees (without work and any travel permit) ?

By your definition there are than a million refugees in Saudi from BD and Pakistan but that is not true. They are workers.

I repeat, GCC countries are the biggest scums on this planet. All they did was to donate amounts that are peanuts for these refugees.

 

[LongHorn]

Tonmoy is right;

gulf countries severely clamped down on new Syrian visas after 2011. And some got visas cancelled and deported ...

Yes, there were Syrians working before that, who are still there now, can you count them as "refugees"?

A Syrian can not enter any Gulf country as a refugee, but as a family member of someone already there ? Yes

Or if they are rich enough, they can enter the UAE; as testified by the luxury cars with Damascus number plates in Dubai (when there are almost never any jordanian/Lebanese cars)

 

[shaykh]

It is NOT a myth... it is true that gulf countries do not help these refugees.

Turkey Lebanon and Jordan are not GCC countries

The 500 thousand syrians that you are suggesting is in Saudi , may I ask how many of them came to Saudi after the war as refugees (without work and any travel permit) ?

By your definition there are than a million refugees in Saudi from BD and Pakistan but that is not true. They are workers.

I repeat, GCC countries are the biggest scums on this planet. All they did was to donate amounts that are peanuts for these refugees.

I know they aren't GCC countries...again I will say having a lot of refugees doesn't mean much...Pakistan leads the list for refugees primarily because it keeps Afghans permanently as refugees...this despite being around for 30 years...classifying people as refugees means you can limit their rights, not provide them access to education etc...and that is what most refugees face in the above mentioned countries...

The GCC for all their faults are actually good on this issue...they give more aid than anyone else and also the Syrians they take on aren't classified as refugees...they are actually given rights...they are allowed to work, given access to healthcare and education...things which refugees in many countries are prevented from doing...they are given freedom of movement rather than being thrown into camps...

As for the numbers there are conflicting versions...the general number appears to be 500k post 2011...

I criticise Saudi plenty on this forum...but this isnt one of those occasions...

 

[tonmoy]

I know they aren't GCC countries...again I will say having a lot of refugees doesn't mean much...Pakistan leads the list for refugees primarily because it keeps Afghans permanently as refugees...this despite being around for 30 years...classifying people as refugees means you can limit their rights, not provide them access to education etc...and that is what most refugees face in the above mentioned countries...

The GCC for all their faults are actually good on this issue...they give more aid than anyone else and also the Syrians they take on aren't classified as refugees...they are actually given rights...they are allowed to work, given access to healthcare and education...things which refugees in many countries are prevented from doing...they are given freedom of movement rather than being thrown into camps...

As for the numbers there are conflicting versions...the general number appears to be 500k post 2011...

I criticise Saudi plenty on this forum...but this isnt one of those occasions...

You are misleading people.
Please show me, when did Saudi or any other GCC countries open their borders to take Syrian refugees? And by refugees, I mean people in distress without proper travel documents.

They always had workers from different countries who entered Saudi through proper channels after getting a job with a Saudi Employee. That is not the same as allowing people inside the kingdom for humanitarian reasons.

Yes they did donate some money but that is peanuts as I already stated.

You are free not to criticize but do not mislead people by falsifying facts.
Also please note, the extreme Wahabi Salafist ideology, that is followed by the ISIS and is responsible for the destruction of some ancient sites, was all funded and exported by the Saudis.

 

[Bewal Express]

A better way for the Gulf states to help the crisis is to look deep inside their hearts and look at their terrible role in this crisis along with Iran, Assad, USA, Russia, Fr, UK and ISIS. When all these protagonists look inside their hearts,they will see that they have caused terrible suffering in the pursuit of power and massaging of egos. Was the death of even one person a price worth paying for your power games?

 

[shaykh]

You ask a valid question actually ...and I guess it seems the only source for the information is the Saudis themselves ...

The 100,000 figure examining it more closely seems to refer to Syrians already present in the kingdom prior to the war who have had their guest worker status extended ...ie they haven't been sent home and have been given residency ...

The claim which is more difficult to verify is the claim that Saudis have taken in war refugees ...most sources seem to suggest no ...

 

[Pollack]

Not a myth at all.

 

[shortbread]

Too little too late......

Had the Al Sauds had any sort of intelligence and diplomacy skills rather than the bunch of silver spooned idiots they are, all these issues in the Middle East would never had happened.

They could have brokered peace between Iraq and Kuwait over drilling rights.

Took unilateral Arab action against Saddam by joining hands with Iran, rather than give US a blow to get the job done.

Not fund the is to take over Iraq and Syria

Negotiate and find peaceful solutions in Syria and Yemen.

Accepting refugees is a drop in the ocean!

They are killing more by conducting bombing raids on Yemen everyday!