As the war in Syria has reached a stage where two superpowers are busy flying in the country’s sky with different aims and objectives, the direct impact is on innocent civilians who want to live a normal life like the rest of us.
The war has killed and rendered many homeless. We still remember the photo of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy who washed up on a Turkish beach, which for the first time gripped the world’s attention of the danger and horror the Syrian population has gone through since the start of the war.
After the boy’s death, it emerged that his family had hoped to settle in Canada to escape the poverty of refugee camps but due to an absence of international support, his family had to rely on human traffickers in an attempt to get to Europe.
Critically analyzing the situation about the country’s refugee crisis, it is clear that countries that have contributed whether supporting the Syrian government or rebels are the ones who are accepting only a very small number of these displaced people.
The Usuncut reports that more than $16 billion has entered Syria since 2011. And the countries behind this have labeled it “military aid”. And if this money had been invested in settling displaced people, the situation would not have deteriorated this far.
Pointing finger to specific countries contributing to the conflict, number one is the United States. This country with no physical proximity to Syria bears a special responsibility for the devastation caused in the country.
Many critics of the country have said that ISIS, which is an outgrowth of Al Qaeda in Iraq, would not exist today if George W. Bush had not invaded Iraq in 2003. And the Obama administration is said to be spending nearly $1 billion a year in covert military assistance for rebel groups in the country since the conflict started. Apart from this, the U.S. are also spending $10 million a day on airstrikes on ISIS. 37% of these strikes are taking place in Syria. According to a 2015 report from the Congressional Research Service, the US has, since 2011, spent an estimated $7.7 billion in Syria in combined military and “humanitarian” aid much of which ended up in the hands of ISIS.
And the sharp contrast is that, Obama has shown little interest in assisting the Syrian refugees. According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the US has accepted only 1,434 of Syria’s 4 million refugees. It later pledged to accept up to 8,000 and this has been heavily criticized by the IRC.
To take you quickly through other Western countries participating in the war, but unwilling to open their borders for what their actions are causing, Britain’s role in the air war against ISIS has cost $122 million so far, yet it has accepted only 4,866 Syrian refugees.
Canada has spent $190 million funding the Syrian opposition and will spend $528 million fighting ISIS over the next year but has only accepted 2,300 Syrians. European Union nations joining with the US in bombing Syria (UK, France, Belgium, Denmark, and Netherlands) spent an estimated $882 million as of 2013, yet they have only accepted just over 16,000 refugees combined. The Netherlands refuses to accept more than 250 Syrian refugees.
Russia has also played a large role in the war by supplying billions in weapons to the Syrian government. An estimated 10% of Russia exported weapons are sent to Syria. Russia reportedly has $1.5 billion worth of ongoing arms contracts with Syria for various missile systems and upgrades to tanks and aircraft. It has even doubled that investment in small arms sales since 2011. But despite this direct role, Russia is said to have accepted 1,395 Syrian refugees on temporary asylum.
Meanwhile, Western countries like Germany, Greece, Sweden, Austria and France have been far more generous. Germany, for instance, is set to take in 800,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year. The Berlin-based Refugees Welcome is even trying to create an Airbnb for refugees. Throughout Germany a movement to assist asylum seekers is taking root.
The Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have also played a significant role in Syria’s devastation, funneling billions in weapons and cash to Syrian rebel groups. Qatar alone spent at least $3 billion over just the first two years of the war. Kuwaiti has also invested around $800 million in the war. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Qatar have also played various roles in the war. But at least for Turkey, it has opened its borders to refugees just that the conditions available in the refugees’ camps are not worth supporting a normal life. For the rest, it is difficult to verify the actual number of refugees they have taken.
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Germany is the sixth….and most people are cautious because there are ALLOT of economic refugees among them. Especially young men, were are the children/women/older men?