Why People in Syria Do Not Go To Neighboring Gulf States

In addition to Syrians, others who have fled wars or were uprooted – such as Palestinians, Lebanese, Kuwaitis and Yemenis – have made their home in the region, as Emirati commentator Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi noted in The worldwide Business Times. But to the Syrians, those answers add up to a simple answer: that they are simply not welcome.

Officially, Syrians can apply for a tourist visa or work permit in order to enter a Gulf state.

Whereas European nations resembling Austria and Germany introduced this week that they’ll open their borders to hundreds of refugees – Germany stated it expects 800,000 to return to the nation this yr – a few of Syria’s neighboring states have taken in no refugees from the Syrian disaster in any respect, regardless of their geographic proximity and nearer cultural, spiritual and linguistic hyperlinks.

Without a visa, Syrians are not now allowed to enter Arab countries except for Algeria, Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen.

As Europe engages in a bout of soul-searching about its treatment of refugees, prompted in part by a widely shared image of a drowned Syrian child, the refusal of wealthy Gulf Arab states to play a significant role in alleviating the crisis has come under increasing scrutiny.

This is despite the fact that these countries are in a uniquely flawless position to do so. Although they are escaping the terror of Islamic State militants and a country wrecked by chemical weapons from an ongoing, five-year civil war, Syria was a remarkably free and educated country in its heyday.

The Gulf states, on the other hand, have harsh laws restricting citizens’ freedoms to talk, dress, and interact.

Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to rehome “thousands” of Syrian refugees – despite claiming this week that simply accepting more refugees was not the answer to the crisis.

The failure in receiving the desperate refugees comes as most of the [P]GCC member states have relentlessly backed the Takfiri militancy against the Syrian government over the past years.

The hashtag #Welcoming_Syria’s_refugees_is_a_Gulf_duty in Arabic was tweeted over 33,000 times on Twitter in the past week, reports BBC Monitoring. “They could be contributing more to the global humanitarian system”.

“There are some Syrians who have found refuge in the Gulf, especially in Qatar, but they would all generally be on some kind of temporary visas”, says Jane Kinninmont, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House in London. “They spend the money [on Syrians], but they don’t want the people“.

Many European countries are being criticized for discriminating between Christians and Muslims and offering sanctuary to only a small number of refugees, reports The Washington Post.

Another user replied: “I swear to the Almighty God, it’s the Arabs who are the infidels”.