Despite withering criticism over their reluctance to host Syria’s refugees, the rich Arab Gulf states are unlikely to end their practice of keeping out those who flee the world’s trouble spots.
None of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states - Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar - has signed the UN convention on refugees which has governed international law on asylum since World War II.
The Syrian father of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose image drowned on a Turkish beach last week helped inspire a wave of global sympathy for refugees making perilous voyages to Europe, blamed Arab countries for failing to take in more Syrians.
“I want Arab governments - not European countries - to see (what happened to) my children, and because of them to help people,” Abdullah Kurdi said last week as he crossed the border back to Syria to bury tiny Aylan, his five-year-old brother and their mother after they drowned in the Mediterranean.
Gulf states say they have in fact taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrians since the civil war there began in 2011, including half a million in Saudi Arabia and 100,000 in the United Arab Emirates - just not as refugees.
Like the rest of the expatriates that form a majority in many Gulf States, Syrians have been admitted mainly as temporary guest workers, which generally means they must have jobs lined up before they arrive, or as their family dependants.
The Gulf monarchies also say they are big humanitarian aid donors, having contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to relief efforts in the region. But that cuts little ice with an increasingly critical humanitarian community.
Analysts say the Gulf states worry about the political, social and economic impact of an influx of refugees, especially fellow Arabs, who might settle permanently and demand broad civil rights that temporary guest workers know not to expect.
After Arab expatriates became involved in local political movements in the 1950s and 60s, Gulf governments steered their recruitment of foreign workers more towards Asia than the Middle East.
Gulf citizens worry that generous social welfare benefits for nationals may come under strain if state money has to be allocated to deal with a massive influx of non-nationals, particularly at a time when budgets are stretched by lower prices for oil exports.
Abdullah al-Shammari, a former Saudi diplomat, said images of refugees in distress could pressure Gulf states to relax their policies, possibly by giving Syrians preference when applying for jobs and loosening restrictions for visas.
But a wider policy reversal is unlikely as long as Gulf states are not signatories to global refugee conventions.