OVER THE LAST several months, both sections of the press have regularly reported on the ongoing plight of refugees from various countries of the Middle East, particularly Syrians, in seeking asylum in Europe or America. More often than not, we are told that European or American reluctance to accept refugees is largely the result of anti-Islamic bigotry.
Accordingly, little attention is then given to the region where these refugees could best start life anew, the Arabian Peninsula and its Arabic-speaking, oil-rich countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Over four million Syrians now await resettlement in vast, squalid camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt. But right next door, the oil-rich nations of the Arabian Peninsula are simply ignoring this desperate mass of humanity, even though they are mostly fellow Sunnis.
Now, there’s no doubt that some of the opposition in the United States and Europe to accepting refugees is bigoted, but it isn’t bigoted to question the wisdom of trying to incorporate hundreds of thousands – and perhaps several million – refugees in the West.
Adapting to a new culture and language is very hard, and refugees often can’t practise professions they had at home because their degrees and licences don’t transfer. They’d have a far easier adjustment if accepted by Arab nations with abundant wealth. It’s time for the West, (as always, the UN has reaffirmed its fecklessness in this tragedy) to “shame” these nations into, at the very least, sharing this responsibility.
– Charles Knighton
