Sharmine Sokataly
Tuesday, 10th November 2015
INTL 2200

Op-Ed: Syrian refugees should be welcomed in the Gulf

The Gulf countries – particularly Saudi Arabia – have been much involved Syria’s conflict; secretly funding the rebel groups against Assad. And now, are there no funds left to help the millions of displaced inhabitants of Syria due to this war? Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain are in the top 20 countries with the highest GDP per capita. They are Arab, they speak Arabic, all have a similar culture to Syria, and are all predominantly Sunni. Assimilation issues would be very low compared to other countries such as in the West, where most of them are migrating to. Why is the Gulf doing nothing to help them? It’s time for the US to pressure them and get them to start receiving Syrian refugees.

Saudi Arabia would benefit from taking in refugees as it would increase their currently small work force, and the country is already used to having immigrants, who make up 30% of the population. The demographics of the country will soon cause issues as the population is quickly ageing, and the country needs more workers in the lower class. Additionally, there are has been an ongoing Sunni vs. Shia war for a long time, hence Saudi’s involvement in Syria against Assad and Iran. If they value the Sunnis that much, the first thing they should do is protect the Sunni-majority population of Syria and bring them to their country to favor their side. If Assad is removed by force, any government that comes after him will probably be Sunni, thus it is in Saudi Arabia’s best interest to show that they support the Syrian people to have more influence on its government in the future. But for now, Saudi Arabia has decided not to do anything about the crisis instead and just avoid that issue to let the rest take care of it.

If there are two countries that depend enormously on each other for economic reasons, it’s the US and Saudi Arabia. It’s a strange relationship as Saudi has no relations with Israel, which is one of the US’s closest ally; yet, their partnership for oil is crucial to both countries. Additionally, they are both on the same side against Iran. The US is therefore a big leverage and can influence its oil provider to help Syria, especially as it is in the best interest of all countries. Saudi has given pretexts about having donated a lot of money to help the refugees, or saying that there are already Syrians in the country – but those are not refugees. There are currently 100,000 air conditioned tents in the city of Mina that could house 3 million people and are only used 5 days a year for pilgrimage, similarly to all the empty buildings in Dubai that were built during the economic crisis. It would save other countries a lot of trouble by just sending them to the Gulf, where accommodation is ready.

The rich Middle Eastern have everything set up for Syrians to come in, which would save countries like Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and the West a lot of time and money. Political pressure from the US can influence change, especially when using these solid arguments – yet nobody is doing a thing. Millions of Syrians are suffering and many of them have to go far to attempt to seek refuge, at the risk of being sent back, when there are nearby countries that are wasting housing and the opportunity of growing their economy with more workers. Since they are so dependent on us for oil money, we have the reins in our hands and can push for something to be done.