Migrant Crisis: Where Have the Gulf States Been?

Why a region with $2 trillion in annual income can’t seem to spare much for the neighbors

An artificial island off the coast of Dubai Matthias Seifert / Reuters

• Mardo Soghom
• Sep 8, 2015

Finally, a rich Arab has come forward with a major offer of help to Middle Eastern refugees.
Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian billionaire, tweeted on September 1 that he was willing to buy an island from Greece or Italy to “host the migrants” and not hold back on any financing needed to make it a permanent home. He even suggested that it can become a new country called Hope. (Though he also suggested it could be “at least temporary until they can return to their countries.”)

The reaction on social media to Sawiris’s generous offer has been largely positive. After all, who would criticize a successful world citizen for a willingness to do what most governments are reluctant to do to address the current crisis?
But few in the media or diplomatic circles have asked the more important question: Where have the rich Arab countries been over the last few years, as the Syrian civil war has raged and millions of refugees have fled to neighboring countries?

The only Arab countries to have accepted Syrian refugees are Jordan and Lebanon, two weak economies with very limited means. 

To be sure, rich Arab countries have sent some aid to refugees in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, but no major plan has even been offered that would appear to be aimed at making a serious difference.
Consider the financial means at the disposal of five energy-rich Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. Their combined GDP is about $2 trillion a year, and their combined population is under 55 million people. That translates into a per capita annual income in the poorest member of this group, Bahrain, of more than $21,000 and a per capita gross national income in the richest, Qatar, of $90,000.

It is not hard to imagine what 5 percent of their combined annual GDPs—so around $100 billion—might have done to avert the worst of the crisis. Arab countries could have offered well-financed safe havens on the vast stretches of land they control, or they could have offered major financial incentives to other countries to host the refugees.

Per capita income is roughly $50,000 in Austria and around $43,000 in the U.A.E. Yet no rich Arab country has allowed Syrian refugees to stream across its border.

 

But, arguably, expectations ought to have been low to begin with. For a Syrian, Iraqi, Lebanese, or citizen of any other average Arab country, it is next to impossible to get even a temporary visa from some of these rich Arab countries, the same or worse for a work permit. Still, many people are prepared to criticize Western countries for not readily offering safe haven to Middle Eastern refugees.

 Lees verder in The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/refugees-migrant-crisis-arab-countries/404203/

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