The wave of refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen continues to strike the shores of Europe and, at the moment, it does not look like it’s going to stop anytime soon. While Western European nations struggle with this relentless human wave, the neighbouring countries in the region do not appear to be in any hurry to stop the cause of this mass migration.
Some countries such as Lebanon or Jordan may be too weak because of the internal struggles they have among themselves to do any powerful intervention, but others who have both the financial and military resources to intervene are not willing to put out any effort to stop this crisis. One of the mighty military powers in the region, in fact, let out its forces to join the fray in Yemen on behalf of a warring party instead of quelling the war there.
Unfortunately, the wars that are currently raging in the Middle East are all home-grown, and are among parties that are rooted in the soils of the affected countries. The war in Syria that started as a rebellion against President Assad and his cohorts, morphed into a hydra-headed monster, splintering the rebellion into several groups that are currently feuding more among themselves than against the government of that country.
The ultimate feud was sown by a rebel group, which, in the name of establishing a true Islamic state, seized territories in a failed state and marched on to annex territories from neighbouring Iraq by defeating a thoroughly demoralised and weak Iraqi force. The success of this violently radical group in holding on to a sizable territory in Syria and Iraq for over a year, and their zealous implementation of harsh laws in the name of religion, turned that area into a police state that was no better than the one the group was supposed to have liberated from President Assad.
As the civil war ravaged city after city with strikes by government forces, militants from the Islamic state gained most, because they were better organised and better motivated than other rebel groups. But, in the meantime, people in these cities became the helpless collaterals.
The situation in Iraq was hardly better -- the inability of the Iraqi Army to defend Iraqi cities in the face of advancing jihadists from Syria, and the failure of the Iraqi government to provide security to its Sunni minority, splintered the country into two camps. This internal division also helped the expansion of the so-called Islamic state into Iraqi territory. People in the fallen territories became victims of not only the war between the two armies, but also the increasing Shia-Sunni strife.
While wars in Syria and Iraq went from bad to worse, a third fight began in Yemen, again resulting from historic internal struggle between two sects. What had once begun as a rebellion of the people against a corrupt president, leading to the exit of said president, turned, again, into a battle between two opposing Shia-Sunni sects, one seeking domination over the other.
The fight was exacerbated when Saudi Arabia decided to come and join forces with the government to put out the rebel army. The fight there shows no sign of termination even after three months of external intervention. Like the hapless Syrians and Iraqis, the Yemenis have also joined the wave of refugees.
Yet another source of the procession of refugees who are pounding the walls of Europe is Afghanistan, which has been a perennial supplier of refugees to the world (since the Russian invasion). The successive governments there, since the fall of the Taliban, have been too weak to provide a sense of protection or security to its people. With the resilient Taliban forces harassing the government frequently, the flow of refugees from that country continues unabated.
There is a temptation in some quarters to provide a blanket explanation for all the conflicts that are raging in most Middle Eastern countries -- putting the blame on the external powers for the current crisis for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq more than a decade ago. The idea is that the refugee crisis would not have occurred had there been no such wars. There may be some merit to such arguments, if the genesis of the current crisis were solely attributable to the previous wars. However, it is not entirely so.
Much of the current refugee crisis in the Middle East and Afghanistan has to do with political instability within the countries and rivalry among the countries to dominate regional politics. In doing so, these countries have aligned with super-powers of the world to retain their areas of interest.
Wars, per se, do not create refugees. Wars generally create displaced persons who have to move from places of conflict to safer places. This we had seen in major wars in Europe and Asia in the past. However, the displaced people moved back to their own homes when the wars were over.
The outflow of refugees from the conflict-ridden countries now, from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, or even Afghanistan, is not a result of any externally-driven war. The refugees are fleeing from wars that are imposed on them by their own kind, either for throwing out regimes that they do not want or they are fighting amongst themselves to gain political control.
They are fleeing their country because the government there is unable to protect them. They are fleeing from persecution carried out by their own people because of their sect or beliefs. These are not wars carried out by foreigners. These are wars created by their own people. No wonder they want to leave.
The supreme irony is that, the lands that the refugees seek for their safety and security are not those that are in their vicinity or which are closer to their culture and religious beliefs. These are distant lands that are as far removed from them physically as they are culturally and ethnically. They are not only fleeing their own countries, but also the entire region, as they do not think their neighbours would welcome them. They have become pariahs to their own kind.
The refugees from the Middle East have raised both short-term and long-term issues for the region and for the Western powers who are torn between a moral obligation to give them asylum and a practical problem of accommodating them at a substantial cost to their economies. It is ironic that, while the Western powers debate these issues, financially solvent countries in the Middle East have decided to remain silent on the subject.
Refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen should be of equal concern to the countries in that region. Today, it might be only these three countries, where infighting has driven people from their homes. Tomorrow, it might be the countries in their vicinity. This outflow needs to be stopped at the root. And it can only happen if all countries in the Arabian Gulf and Middle East join forces.