Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
30
access policy in December 2014 and humanitarian organizations have reported intermittent
border closings at the Jordan-Syria border as well.50
In the Arab Gulf countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates), official numbers of refugees and asylum seekers are very small. Despite their lack
of an asylum regime, some Gulf States have contended that they offer support to forced
migrants through other means, such as economic migration regimes which can sometimes
draw from the same populations. Thousands of Palestinians were admitted into the Gulf States
in the 1960’s and 1970’s as professionals, and Saudi Arabia quietly signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with UNHCR to serve as a conduit for Iraqi refugees during the First Gulf War –
with most later resettled or repatriated.51
More recently, Saudi Arabia claims to have taken in over 2.5 million Syrians as economic
migrants since the outbreak of the civil war in that country, while the United Arab Emirates
claims to have granted residency permits to 100,000 Syrians.52 Saudi Arabia also stopped
deporting Yemeni migrant workers in March 2015 as violence in Yemen increased and later
offered a six-month renewable visa allowing undocumented Yemenis to work and live legally
in the country.53 Such non-asylum measures have been criticized though for giving preference
to refugees with valuable economic skills and putting refugees at risk of refoulement if their
visas and residence permits are terminated.54
A lack of regional cooperation to address humanitarian need
While efforts to provide asylum and prevent refoulement are admirable, most initiatives in the
Middle East have been piecemeal and lack an overarching regional framework. Little work has
been done at a regional level to improve the plight of forced migrants. The League of Arab
States (LAS) includes a Migration and Arab Expatriates Department (MAED) that has sought to
develop more effective migration policies to enhance regional integration.55 But it remains to
be seen how effective this initiative will be, and for the time being national policies towards
forced migrants remain driven by particular interests that can change over time.
2.3. Forced Migration in North Africa56
Located along the Mediterranean Sea across from the wealthy states of Europe, North Africa
holds a strategic position between the two continents. For the latter half of the 20th Century,
North Africa was largely viewed as an exporter of labor to Europe. Since the 1990’s however,
50 Beucher and de los Reyes Vazques del Pino, “EU Cooperation with third countries in the area of migration, asylum and
assistance to displaced persons”; International Labour Organization, Access to work for Syrian refugees in Jordan: A
discussion paper on labour and refugee laws and policies, (Beirut: International Labour Organization, 2015),15; Rana Sweis,
“Jordan’s Open Door Is Now Only Cracked, Leaving Syrians Stranded,” The New York Times, November 19, 2014,
51 Karen E. Young, Refugee Crisis and Economic Migration: Regional Economic Interdependence and the Arab Gulf States,
(Washington, DC: The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, 2015), 5
52 Taylor Luck, “Syrian refugee crisis: Are wealthy Gulf states doing their part?,” The Christian Science Monitor, updated
September 16, 2015
53 Human Rights Watch, “Saudi Arabia: Mass Expulsions of Migrant Workers,” updated May 9, 2015,
54 Young, Refugee Crisis and Economic Migration: Regional Economic Interdependence and the Arab Gulf States,5
55 Examples include the Regional Consultative Meeting for the Arab Region in June 2013 and the launch of the Arab Regional
Consultative Process (ARCP) in October 2015. Bram Frouws, Responses to mixed migration in the Horn of Africa & Yemen:
policies and assistance responses in a fast-changing context, (Nairobi: The Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, 2013), 19
56 This report considers the North Africa region to include the following OIC member states: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco,
and Tunisia.