Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
WRITTEN BY EDITOR KALAHAN DENG
All know about the pandemonium (chaos) happening in the Middle East, especially Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen which is forcing millions of people out of their respective countries. But where are the masters of the wealthiest of oil such as Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and so on? Are they no longer their brother’s keepers? Why are they not taking the lead in welcoming their own brothers, sisters, elders and children who are risking their precious lives in the Mediterranean Sea?
I thought these oil rich nations would step forward and tell the world we are here to help in taking these people into our countries instead of leaving them to die in an open sea, suffocate in trucks like what had happened in Vienna, Austria last week. I wonder whether those oil rich Arab countries know the string of tragedies after tragedies that are being faced by refugees trying their way to Europe. A recent tragedy was that more than 50 refugees were found dead in a parked truck in Austria, and another migrant ship sank off Libya deepening a crisis that is overwhelming Europe and throwing up new tragedies by the day.
Thanks to German Chancellor Angela Merkel who said, “We are of course all shaken by the appalling news. This reminds us that we must tackle quickly the issue of immigration and in a European spirit – that means in a spirit of solidarity – and find solutions.” Just imagine the European nations are making solidarity to find out solutions, meanwhile; the oil rich Arab nations are contributing a lot of instability or supporting one group against the other in the Middle East.
According to a security official in the Libyan city Zuwara, several hundred people had been on board a boat that sank off the coast, many of them were from Syria, Iraq, Libya and Morocco. The International Organization for Migration estimated 2,373 people had died so far this year alone while trying to reach Europe by sea, and 3,573 in the past 12 months.
On Wednesday August 26, 2015, rescuers saved about 3,000 migrants but found more than 55 dead on boats near the coast of Libya, the Italian coastguard said. Hundreds of thousands, many of fleeing war in countries such as Syria and Iraq have made it into the European Union. Germany alone expects 800,000 asylum seekers this year. Hungary is building a barbed wire fence along its borders with Serbia.
The question is where are the oil rich countries in this chaos that is taking many lives?
