It’s not possible to enter Saudi Arabia without registering as a refugee?
I really don’t understand what you are saying. 500,000 people entered Greece over the summer, they couldn’t just enter Saudi Arabia? What would Saudi do, just shoot them at the border?
When you say they should just go to Saudi Arabia, can I assume you’ve done the tiniest bit of research to see if Saudi Arabia has taken any refugees? Or are you saying they should take ALL Middle East refugees?
Fyi, SA did not sign the U.N. Refugee Convention.
I imagine that it’s possible.
I’m saying that EU countries accept refugees, and Saudi Arabia does not.
Well, if they enter Greece, then they register as refugees, as per the CEAS. They are protected by the laws of the EU and the UN, and they can move to other EU nations as necessary, so as to avoid hotspots like Hungary and countries having trouble affording to care for them, like Greece.
If they enter Saudi Arabia, assuming they don’t get shot at the border, they are there illegally, and enjoy none of those legal protections. They are at the mercy of an authoritarian government with pronounced anti-foreigner policies. In the desert.
Could a refugee and ignore all this and head for SA anyway? Sure. A refugee could hurl themselves into a volcano, too. In both cases, there are good reasons not to do so, and no good reasons to do so.
Well, my question was why DON’T they go to Saudi Arabia. The only answer so far was “Because they don’t have visas”
Has Saudi Arabia taken in Syrian refugees in 2015? I don’t remember seeing lines of refugees travelling towards Tabuk or Jeddah. Were there any pictures of little boys drowned on their way to Saudi?
Saudi Arabia has taken in relatives of people who already have work permits for Saudi Arabia. They will not take in refugees under other categories. That represents a tiny fraction of the Syrian and other MENA refugees currently looking for a new country.
As it is an absolute monarchy if the king says he doesn’t want to accept refugees they don’t. It’s that simple.
Maybe I’ll join the ongoing protests over Saudi Arabia’s treatment of refugees. Can you tell me where they might be?
Again, if a line of 20,000 refugees were to cross into Saudi Arabia, would they just shoot them on site?
I seem to remember a big outcry when Hungary wanted to stop letting refugees in.
So you haven’t done the slightest bit of looking. Pretty pathetic, dude.
Yes, they’ve taken in refugees. Getting exact numbers and origins is difficult though. They seem to restrict it to people who have some family there already - SA has a very large foreign workforce so that’s less restrictive than you might imagine.
On social media and op-ed pages, mostly.
And as has been noted, the Gulf states are taking a non-zero number of Syrians - but as workers (and families of workers), not refugees.
Would you take your family there, in the hope that they wouldn’t shoot you, strand you in the desert, or enslave you, instead of heading for Turkey, Jordan, or Europe? I wouldn’t. What possible reason would you have?
Hungary doesn’t have that option, under EU law.
The Gulf states don’t have a similar obligation.
That was more of a question for you. Yes, I know that there are “refugees” in Saudi Arabia. My question was more along the lines of WHEN did they go? What is their status? Have Syrian refugees with no family in Saudi Arabia gone to Saudi Arabia in 2015? As you point out, exact numbers and origins are difficult to get.
So nowhere is what you are saying.
In 2016, social media isn’t “nowhere”, it’s a major venue for worldwide communications.
If you want to hold a street protest demanding that Saudi Arabia sign the UN Convention on Refugees, go nuts.
And so “why don’t they go to Saudi Arabia?” was some kind of rhetorical question? I don’t get it.
I see. So the answer is “Because Saudi Arabia is a desert shithole with horrible treatment of immigrants”
They wouldn’t have to shoot them. Just leave them, ignore them, and let the desert kill them with thirst and heatstroke.
Basically, yes - there’s an inhospitable climate, an inhospitable government, and much better choices in the area. And so, unsurprisingly, the refugees are making those better choices.
I wouldn’t take my family anywhere, I would probably stay in my own country. If another civil war broke out in the US, I wouldn’t flee to Canada or Mexico.
Er, ok, your call. Hopefully you & your family can avoid the barrel bombs, poison gas, and getting conscripted into fighting for either a ruthless dictator or radical Islamists. But, at least you’d get to die for nothing on your native soil, I suppose.
Well, thanks for being honest. Most answers are only “They don’t have visas!” or “Saudi Arabia does take refugees” or “It’s too far” or other variations of the same theme, without stating the obvious.