Shams Ahsan
A SENIOR European Union official has appreciated the efforts of Saudi Arabia as well as those of other Gulf countries to help refugees displayed by wars in Syria and Iraq.
“There is an interesting parallel between what Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have done and what Europe has done as far as the refugee crisis is concerned,” Alexander Rondos, European Union Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, told Saudi Gazette during his recent visit to Jeddah.
“The issue is how these migrants stay as close as possible to their homes. We, in the mean time, focus on creating conditions that will allow them to return home,” he said.
Rondos, who visited Riyadh and Jeddah to further strengthen GCC involvement in the development of the Horn of Africa, said the Gulf countries are pursuing a policy toward refugees that is actually not dissimilar to what Europe is doing. “The issue of the burden sharing in the middle of the migrant crisis should not be reduced to this or that region or Europe.
There is a much wider international landscape. What happens in Syria is a challenge for all of us. We need to dig deeper to find the best way forward,” he said.
Rondos said: “We have learned the way the countries in the GCC found a way to assist Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. It is the most proper and humane thing that all these people who had to leave Syria because of the conflict should be assisted to stay as close to Syria as they can so they can return home as quickly as possible.”
Saudi Arabia has received nearly 2.5 million Syrians since the 2011 rebellion against the regime of President Bashar Al- Assad. The Kingdom has not dealt with them as refugees or put them in refugee camps to preserve their dignity and safety. The Kingdom has also provided about $700 million in humanitarian aid to Syrians and had set up clinics in various refugee camps.
Rondos, whose term as EUSR for the Horn has been extended up till 2017, said the EU will help countries be temporary hosts so that refugees can return home as quickly as possible. “At the same time we will invest more to help address the cause of migration.”
He, however, admitted that incidents like the heinous Paris attacks “create a shock”.
“But we will move forward in a way that meets our basic principles of humanity in which we all anchor ourselves. Europe is taking refugees; it will continue to take in refugees. It is going to find a way to absorb them,” said Rondos, adding that the EU is very eager to maintain a good relationship of mutual benefit with the GCC.
As EU representative for the Horn of Africa, Rondos said that it was his responsibility to talk to international partners for the benefit of the region, which lies just across the Red Sea.
“We will be failing in our efforts if we do not enter into cooperation with the Gulf which has so many things in common with the Horn of Africa,” he said.
The Horn of Africa is an an area of common interest, said Rondos, who met in Riyadh the GCC Secretary General, Abdullatif Al-Zayani, and senior officials at the Saudi Foreign Ministry. In Jeddah, he visited the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), discussed with officials the strategies and areas of investment in the Horn. He also met Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Madani.
“After these meetings, I came away with three conclusions. This region has a shared concern on the issue of terrorism, the root causes of migration, the problems of poverty, inequality, and how one can contribute in diminishing the areas of potential conflict.”
Ambassador Adam Kulach, head of the EU delegation to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, was also present during the interview.
