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AI: Rich nations can do more for Syrians

December 5, 2014

Amnesty International has criticized rich nations for not taking in enough refugees from Syria. According to the rights group, that represents a failure to respond to the crisis created by the country's civil war.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Dzzy
Syrische Flüchtlinge in einem Flüchtlingslager im Libanon
Image: AFP/Getty Images/M. Hautefeuille

On Friday, the human rights group Amnesty International criticized wealthy nations for failing to support refugees from Syria.

Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Amnesty's head of refugee and migrant rights, called the lack of assistance by wealthy nations "truly shocking."

The organization's statement is coming ahead of a donor conference scheduled for Tuesday in Geneva.

Neighboring countries carrying burden

About 3.9 million refugees from Syria have fled to five main countries within the region - Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt - the London-based rights watchdog announced. Hence, the neighboring countries have carried the heavy burden. And only 1.7 percent of the refugees had been offered sanctuary globally.

Many Syrians who fled their country in recent years have been returning, chosing home over discrimination, low-paid jobs or poor living conditions.

"The Gulf states, which include some of the world's wealthiest countries, have not offered to take a single refugee from Syria so far," Amnesty charged.

It also singled out China and Russia for failing to take in any refugees.

"Russia and China have similarly failed to pledge a single resettlement place," Amnesty reported on Friday, calling that lack "shameful."

'Paltry 0.17 percent'

EU countries were also called out in Amnesty's report: "Excluding Germany, the rest of the European Union has pledged to resettle a paltry 0.17 percent of refugees in the main host countries."

The EU defended its policy on refugees from Syria. "We have done the maximum," Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, said. Kocijancic will visit a refugee camp in Turkey next week to show solidarity.

On Wednesday, Germany and the European Commission announced an agreement to coordinate their policies on asylum-seekers.

The Amnesty International report was published after an announcement by the UN's World Food Program on Monday that the coming winter could leave millions of Syrians hungry if international donors failed to come through.

UN agencies estimate that more than 3 million Syrians have fled their homeland to neighboring countries and 6.45 million people are displaced inside the country itself.

ra/mkg (dpa, AFP)