I don’t know how many times now I’ve written about Muslim Saudi Arabia deporting Somali refugees, or arresting Rohingya refugees or refusing Iraqi refugees and Palestinians too—co-religionists all! Nonetheless, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) continues to beg the rich Saudis to take some refugees.
Here is the latest plea:
The United Nations refugee agency called on Saudi Arabia on Friday to halt expulsions of Somalis to Mogadishu, rebuking the kingdom for deporting 1,000 a month by aircraft to the violent capital.
Neighboring countries should offer legal residence to Somali workers and asylum-seekers until it is safe to return to Mogadishu, where civilians are often targeted in the fighting between Somali forces and Islamist al Shabaab rebels, it said.
“Given the deadly violence in Mogadishu, UNHCR is urging the Saudi authorities to refrain from future deportations on humanitarian grounds,” Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.
Saudi authorities have told the UNHCR that they are deporting Somalis who have been staying in the country illegally, according to U.N. sources.
UNHCR said a week ago that Somali refugees were taken to Kenya and the semi-autonomous enclave of Puntland following deadly bombings by Al Shabaab in Uganda. Authorities in Puntland have also been deporting Somalis, but so far Kenya has not, it said.
So while rich (racist!) Muslim countries refuse refugees we are told we must take in the world!
The article reminds us that Saudi Arabia has not signed the international convention on refugees.
I’ll remind readers (and the UNHCR) that just last summer the UN released a report that says that the world’s refugee-saving tradition was born out of Islamic Sharia law and not Christian charity! Give me a break!