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.
A Saudi campaign to support Syria with distributed food rations to displaced people in Beirut.
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.”
