Holy cow! Did you know that! Did you know that some “humanitarian workers” believe that the drawbacks to resettlement outweigh the advantages? That is what “Relief Web” says in this stunning admission.
And, shock of shocks they criticize Saudi Arabia for ‘welcoming’ NO refugees.
Relief Web (skipping down through the section which says how it helps refugees, gets them out of danger, etc). Emphasis is mine:
And yet resettlement is a controversial issue amongst humanitarian workers, a significant proportion of whom consider that its drawbacks equal or outweigh its advantages. The resettlement process, they argue, is labor intensive, expensive, and increasingly slowed by the extensive security checks undertaken by resettlement countries. [US relaxed security checks this week!—ed]
Furthermore, because the demand for resettlement places is so much higher than the supply, bribery and corruption can easily arise in the refugee selection process. It is often suggested that those refugees chosen are not the most vulnerable, but rather the most entrepreneurial and assiduous in navigating the procedure. [Like the Chacha family!—ed] And even those people often find that the going is tough when they arrive at their destination, unfamiliar with its language and culture.
Finally, critics of resettlement point to the fact that so few countries are prepared to make this solution available to the world’s refugees. In the Syrian context, for example, countries such as the U.S. and UK are under mounting pressure to resettle refugees from politicians, advocacy groups and the media.
We, at RRW, suggest resettlement in Saudi Arabia and rich Gulf states all the time!
Yet few people have even raised the possibility of resettling Syrian refugees in nearby Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. As Amnesty International recently pointed out, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council “have not offered a single resettlement to refugees from Syria.” Indeed, far from welcoming refugees, Saudi Arabia recently expelled a massive number of foreigners, including 200,000 from Yemen and 150,000 from Ethiopia, two countries which are poorly placed to absorb such an influx.
Coincidentally? Our second most visited post this week is this one from earlier in January about Saudi Arabia deporting their fellow Muslims—Somalis. Our most-read post this week was on Wyoming considering opening its doors to Muslims from Africa and the Middle East (among others). Wyoming thinks it will control who comes to Wyoming—no it won’t, the US State Department and its contractors decide.