Dr Zafer Mohammed Al Ajmi
Gulf suffers demographic shocks from regional wars
All citizens, especially the poor, cherish their homeland, but some Syrians are deprived of such a fortune. In large areas of Syria, administrative control has repeatedly moved from one faction in the civil war to another. At one point in time people are ruled by the Free Syrian Army, then Assad’s army takes over, and all of a sudden it’s the Nusra Front that has control. The Al Hazm opposition party and many others are also trying to gain power, while waiting to finalise an agreement with their big boss, the Islamic State.
Many Syrians have left their homeland due to the hardships, to find shelter in Jordanian, Lebanese, Turkish and Egyptian camps under the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It seems the Syrian refugees will eventually reach the Gulf countries in order to complete the list and experience all the different types of Arab regimes.
So why have the Gulf countries been added to the list of hosts of Syrian refugees although they are not Syria’s neighbours and there are many other alternatives? Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have built many camps for Syrians with help from UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration.
Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned on February 27, 2015 that the Syrian crisis was on the edge of a whirlpool due to the harsh circumstances Syrian refugees were living in, in the region’s countries.
The hosting communities are exhausted, therefore Syrian refugees must be allowed to live in the Gulf countries to relieve the pressure on Syria’s neighbours.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees doesn’t know that we are not ready for his proposal to resettle Syrians in the Gulf, and there are many reasons for that.
The UN High Commissioner doesn’t know that we have experienced economic, cultural and demographic shocks during each regional war. Our Palestinian brothers have resided in the Gulf to continue their resistance and eventually return home; fighting the settlement projects the Zionists are diligently working on to move Palestinians out of their lands into Arab countries.
We still remember the Rafha camp built in Saudi Arabia for Iraqi refugees that hosted around 38,000 refugees between 1991 and 2008. It was one of the best camps in the world, and the UNHCR at that time described it as a seven-star hotel compared to other camps around the globe.
But this did not stop Iraqi intelligence agents from causing confusion and riots there, and they even burnt the Islamic Relief Organisation’s headquarters in the camp.
The passiveness of Western militaries has led to political monotony. The West continues to deceive the Arab conscience and weaken opposition to alternatives that do not serve the Syrian people.
The proposal to resettle Syrians in the Gulf countries is a polite suggestion for additional suffering. The Syrians to be resettled in the Gulf are Sunnis. This will empty Syria of Sunnis, which will lead to a state of balanced minorities instead of having one majority sect, the Sunnis.
This step will benefit Assad at this stage, and of course benefit the Zionists, who want Shia, Christian, Kurdish and Alawite cantons in Syria that will create a balance with Sunnis.
Half solutions will block the liberation of the Syrian people and increase their suffering. The Gulf countries do their best to support the Syrians in good as well as bad times. The number of Syrians living in the Gulf before the crisis is the best proof of that. This should stop the UN from presenting a bad image for the Gulf.
I praise the decision-makers in the Gulf for taking the right measures in dealing with this crisis.
The meeting of donors held in Kuwait on March 31, 2015 will help stabilise the situation in the countries that are receiving refugees, which will, in turn, stop moves to resettle them in the Gulf.
The author is CEO of Gulf Monitoring Group
