Photo of the Day

His name was Aylan Kurdi for anyone who cares to give a damn.

Rich gulf states have not absorbed refugees from Syria and Iraq and are now facing criticism

Since the publication of the photo of Aylan Kurdi, the dead Syrian refugee toddler found on the beach in Turkey, the world has directed its attention to the refugee crisis in Europe. What has been the reaction in the Arab world to the crisis given that many of the people seeking to escape to Europe are fleeing from Syria and Iraq?

Arab criticism has been directed at the wealthy Gulf countries who have not absorbed even one Syrian or Iraqi refugee.

Critics have also blasted the silence of Saudi news outlet Al-Arabiya and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera who in the past championed the cause of the Syrian people and have been opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“The Syrian boy has sent tremors through the world, but the silence is deafening in the Arab world,” a Syrian writer said on a site associated with the rebels.

Abed Al-Beri Atwan, the editor of London based Arab newspaper Rai Al-Youm, attacked the Gulf states for not absorbing refugees.

“The paradox is that the nations [the Gulf states] who called for the liberation of the Syrian people from the tyrant [Assad] and have directed billions of dollars to the rebels, have not absorbed refugees, while the poor Arab nations like Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt have received millions of refugees, when these countries do not even have water for their citizens.

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So why aren’t the Gulf states absorbing refugees? The Kuwaiti politician Fahed al- Shelaimi, who heads the Gulf Forum on Peace and Security, provided an answer that shocked millions in the Arab world.

“Gulf states are expensive and aside from being laborers, these people are not suitable for life here,” he said.

“At the end of the day, people from a different environment who suffer from emotional problems cannot be received in your society,” he added.

A video in which Shelaimi makes the above comments has gone viral in social media networks in the Arab world.

The Arab world’s wealthiest nations are doing next to nothing for Syria’s refugees

A fair amount of attention has fallen on the failure of many Western governments to adequately address the burden on Syria’s neighboring countries, which are struggling to host the brunt of the roughly 4 million Syrians forced out of the country by its civil war.

Some European countries have been criticized for offering sanctuary only to a small number of refugees, or for discriminating between Muslims and Christians. There’s also been a good deal of continental hand-wringing over the general dysfunction of Europe’s systems for migration and asylum.

Less ire, though, has been directed at another set of stakeholders who almost certainly should be doing more: Saudi Arabia and the wealthy Arab states along the Persian Gulf.

As Amnesty International recently pointed out, the “six Gulf countries — Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain — have offered zero resettlement places to Syrian refugees.” This claim was echoed by Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, on Twitter

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That’s a shocking figure, given these countries’ relative proximity to Syria, as well as the incredible resources at their disposal. As Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, a Dubai-based political commentator, observes, these countries include some of the Arab world’s largest military budgets, its highest standards of living, as well as a lengthy history — especially in the case of the United Arab Emirates — of welcoming immigrants from other Arab nations and turning them into citizens.

Moreover, these countries aren’t totally innocent bystanders. To varying degrees, elements within Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.A.E. and Kuwait have invested in the Syrian conflict, playing a conspicuous role in funding and arming a constellation of rebel and Islamist factions fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Why Syrians do not flee to Gulf states

A Facebook page called The Syrian Community in Denmark has shared a video showing migrants being allowed to enter Austria from Hungary, prompting one user to ask: “How did we flee from the region of our Muslim brethren, which should take more responsibility for us than a country they describe as infidels?”

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

Latest:

The father of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee whose body was found on a beach in Turkey, has denied being the driver of the boat when it capsized.

Abdullah Kurdi rejected an accusation that he was one of the people smugglers, engaged in taking refugees on the dangerous crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos.

Zainab Abbas, an Iraqi refugee who was on board the boat – and who lost her son and daughter when it capsized – told Australian television that Mr Kurdi was in command when disaster struck.

He was allegedly driving the motor boat so fast that he lost control. The vessel did not have enough life jackets for all of the passengers, at least 12 of whom were drowned.

But Mr Kurdi – whose wife, Rehan, and five-year-old son, Galip, also died – insisted these claims were false.

“I thought about driving the boat but I didn’t do it. That is all lies,” he told MailOnline.

“I know there was an Iraqi family on the boat and two children had died – a boy and a girl. I don’t know why Zainab is saying that. She had the same as me – she lost her children, I lost my children.”

Mr Kurdi added: “I have three graves in front of me and I have no one.”