The wealthiest countries in the Muslim world have refused to take a single Syrian refugee.
Their reason? They’re afraid doing so would open them up to the risk of terrorism. No joke.
Countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates–some of the richest countries on the planet, and awash in oil money–have donated small sums to help refugees in other countries, but have completely refused to open their borders themselves.
Since there’s no way to figure out which refugees are people displaced by ISIS and which refugees are ISIS fighters trying to get into foreign countries, the rest of the Muslim world has turned their back on Syrians.
But that hasn’t stopped the oil states from calling for Europe and the United States to do more to combat the refugee crisis.
Currently, the sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of Syrians have caused a refuge crisis in Europe, as countries like Germany and Sweden struggle to house refugees, and their citizens increasingly sour on the idea.
But, in poorer parts of the Middle East–the nations nearest to Syria–there’s been a crisis as well.
So far, countries like Lebanon and Jordan, which both border Syria, have had to take the biggest number of refugees. But Lebanon already has 1.1 million Syrian refugees, and Jordan has 630,000. Considering that both those countries only have a population of a few million, it’s stretched their resources to the point where both nations have now shut their borders.
But, with Jordan and Lebanon closing their borders, and increasing calls for Europe to close their borders as well, the oil states on the Persian Gulf might soon have no choice but to pitch in, and take their fair share of refugees.
