U.N. Refugee Summit ...Numbers Don't Lie
29 September 2016
By Salman Al-dossary
''We are facing a $20 billion gap, and we hope this summit will be able to
fill it. Twenty billion dollars might be considered a huge number, yet it is
less than what is spent on armament in four days or equivalent to the budget
of a small bank. We have to fill this gap; and as fast as we can.''
This is how former President of the 70th General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft
launched the Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York on Monday.
Indeed, $20 billion is a huge amount of money, but numbers do not lie. Chaos
and forgery are blurring the picture of who is really walking the talk in
supporting refugees. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef delivered a speech before
the summit, during which he revealed Saudi Arabia's stance, silencing
accusations and skepticism on the Kingdom's role in aiding refugees.
It is time for the whole world to listen to reliable information and let go of
rumors and speculations. Saudi Arabia is the country that offered $139 billion
during the last four decades, and it is the third country globally in terms of
the value of aids and humanitarian and developmental reliefs. It is neither
France nor Britain; it is Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is also the country that received 2.5 million Syrian citizens,
not refugees, and has been giving them full freedom without imposing any
restrictions or placing them in refugee camps in the cold.
Saudi Arabia is also the country that enrolled141,000 Syrian students and
285,000 Yemeni students in schools for free.
At the end, no country in the world has provided refugees with what Saudi
Arabia has been granting them.
Certainly, what Riyadh has been doing did not happen recently or because of
international pressure. In fact, Riyadh has been doing that according to a
public policy it adopted decades ago long before the refugee crisis began.
The size of this unprecedented displacement and the fleeing of millions of
people to asylum countries didn't give these countries the chance to provide
them with sustainable solutions. All what the Kingdom and some countries, like
Turkey and Jordan, have been providing for Syrian refugees is considered
temporary aid. The key lies in radical resolutions to rebuild displacement
countries and bring refugees back to their homes.
Or, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef said, the Kingdom believes that the
first and major step to deal with such crises is to intensify efforts to
resolve ongoing conflicts in the world.
On the other hand, after five years of ravaging war and endless tragedies in
Syria, there doesn't seem to exist any realistic solution for the refugee
crisis other than removing Bashar al-Assad from power.
Definitely, the presence of Assad in power and his repressive practices that
have killed and displaced many people and violated human rights are the main
reasons behind scattering 12 million Syrian asylum seekers around the world.
Last year, more than one million people were displaced due to the crises
incurred upon the Middle East and North Africa region. Thousands of them died
while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the year of
2015 witnessed the highest level of forced displacement since World War II.
Without finding radical solutions to bring these wars to an end with real
international willingness, refugee conditions will worsen no matter the size
of the effort put by countries.
Salman Aldosary is the editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
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