How has your country and/or community responded to the Syrian Crisis? Many countries have accepted Syrian refugees as citizens; others have offered financial and monetary aid to rebels in Syria; others have supported the Syrian government in its fight against ISIS and other extremist groups.
Levi Cannon
Aug 15, 2018The Kurds are an ethic group living mostly in the mountainous regions of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. They are the 4th largest ethnic group in the Middle East with around 35 million people, but they still don't have a state. The Kurds have been fighting since the 1920s for their own state, and clashes have led to more instability in the Middle East. Kurdish militants have been among the rebels in the Syrian Civil War, and many believe that the Kurds are using the Civil War as an opportunity to get their own state. Should the Kurds get their own state, and what are the possible pros and cons?
Since the start of civil war, Pakistan adopted the policy of alliance and increased its political role in the unfolding of the crisis on the world stage. Due to murky political situation in Syria, the government of Pakistan found its extremely difficult to take a stance on initial stages of syrian crisis. Pakistan has stronly emphasized a peaceful political resolution of Syrian crisis as opposed of any military actions against Syria. Inspite of Saudi Arabia forming an alliance to coordinate military operations in Syria. Pakistan has adopted the stance against it and stressed its role as strict neutrality. On 27 december 2015 Pakistan officialy stated "It is against any attempt to topple government of Syria President Bashar al Assad."
It is interesting that Pakistan and Syria are allied despite sectarian conflicts. How has Saudi Arabia responded?
Argentina has accepted refugees (but not that many), but refuses to play a role in an armed conflict since it has a history of being neutral when it comes to conflicts. I think this is the position most countries from South America have taken.
I remember reading earlier this year that Argentina had granted scholarships to Syrian refugees (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-refugees-scholarships-idUSKBN1792PU), though as you said, 3,000 refugees is relatively less than other countries.
Saudi Arabia has not responded in a positive way after Pakistan stance on Syria crisis. The long term alliance between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have took a new turn after a series of such incident such as Pakistan neutrality and Saudi Arabia Islamic alliance, Sending Pakistani troops to fight Saudi Arabia war in Syria against Assad Regime, and then this result as Saudi Arabia neglecting Pakistani head of state presence on event of Trump led Islamic alliance conference in Saudi Arabia. This certain event also led Pakistan to take its own stand during recent Qatar crisis when Saudi Arabia asked Pakistan to cancel all diplomatic relations with Qatar and Pakistan took its stand against it. And recently as a revenge Saudi Arabia fires 5000 Pakistani labour working in Saudi companies. So you can see after the Syria crisis, Pakistan didn't have very well-off tradional relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Well , Fiji being such a small country does not have direct linkage with Syrian crisis. At times refugees do end up in Fiji for protection and asylum due to the crisis in that situtation the law of Fiji is as follows;
Claim for asylumA claim is made as soon as a person signifies his intention to seek to be protected recognized as a refugee in the Fiji Islands to an immigration officer. Where a claim is made under subsection (1) of the Fiji Immigration Act 2003, the claimant must, in the approved form.
The asylum seeker must:
establish the claim; and
ensure that all information, evidence and submissions that the asylum seeker wishes to have considered in support of the claim are provided to the Immigration Department before the Permanent Secretary determines the claim
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Archana! Has Fiji accepted Syrian refugees that you are aware of?
Syrian not yet but this year a young Iranian refugee fled PApua New Guiea to seek asylum in Fiji. He left PNG on false passport in January this year , arriving in Fiji with the intention of seeking asylum, he was detained and deported back to PNG.