As a global crisis emerges on how and even if it is possible to accommodate the displaced from Syria’s conflict, a once-distant conflict for many in Western nations and in Gulf states is now a real and visible problem that cannot be ignored.
With hundreds of thousands of migrants in exodus – many of whom have left Syria as the situation there continues a spiral into desperation – western nations are scrambling to take measures to accommodate the refugees. And within the challenge is a crisis that is the latest threatening to divide Europe.
Saudi Arabia says it has taken in over 2.5 million Syrian migrants since the war there started, though independent verification of a figure that large is difficult. But Saudi Arabia continues to take heat that it is not doing enough to help Syrian refugees. A recent report criticized Saudi Arabia for letting go unused 100,000 empty, air-conditioned tents that could be used to house refugees. The tents are used only a few days a year in the town of Mina for hajj pilgrims.
In the United States, Rep. Peter King, a Republican from suburban New York, said that “Middle Eastern nations have ‘more room’ to take in the huge wave of people fleeing their war-torn homeland,” according to Reuters. “I’m very concerned we’re going to let terrorists into the country,” King said.
But prominent Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, in a recent op-ed for Al Arabiya, pushed back against these criticisms and urged welcoming and integrating Syria’s refugees, rather than isolating them into hastily-assembled camps.
“There’s no use in Gulf countries building refugee camps, because Syrians have had enough of living in camps and they want to have a proper life,” Khashoggi wrote.
“And as long as we don’t give them their country back, they will continue to travel in search of a country where they can build a future, and Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries cannot provide them with this option.”