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> The Haj visa are just for the Haj, during the Haj period (last week of the lunar year), for the Haj, i.e. to go from the airport to Mecca and Medina and back.

by mjolk 10y ago

> The Haj visa are just for the Haj, during the Haj period (last week of the lunar year), for the Haj, i.e. to go from the airport to Mecca and Medina and back. A visa is just a political device -- we're talking about refugees. > You have 2 million people passing through within one week. There is a huge infrastructure there, busses, tents, monorail, dedicated airport terminals, massive crowd control measures (every now and then you have a panic where several hundreds of people get crushed). I wouldn't call that "no infrastructure". Wow, moving 2 million people to accommodations in a week should be massively helpful! > Saudi Arabia has little interest in refugees, or tourists: they did not even issue tourist visa until 2014. This is changing ever so slowly as the end of the flow of oil money is coming into sight. No country has interest in refugees, but modern nations have an implicit obligation to minimize human suffering. Based on what you've taught me, I'm curious about the absence of political pressure on Saudi Arabia -- it seems to me that they could greatly help.

FabHK 10y ago
> No country has interest in refugees, but modern nations have an implicit obligation to minimize human suffering. Well, yes. But Saudi Arabia is not a modern, moral nation. It is a monarchy, a totalitarian autocracy, a hereditary dictatorship, with an abysmal human rights record promoting a particularly toxic version of Islam (Wahabism), which in turn legitimises the Saud dynasty's hold on power. They execute more people than the USA (though less than China and Iran). (Note that I'm saying that it's a terrible political system - many Saudi individuals are fine people and suffering under their regime; just as can be said about North Korea, Iran, etc.) The reason they get away with it is their oil wealth. At any rate, they don't give a rat's ass about refugees, and used to have enough money that they didn't need to care much about anyone's opinion. That is slowly changing, and I hope the country will open up and modernise, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any substantial contribution to the refugee crisis.

by mjolk 10y ago

FabHK 10y ago

> No country has interest in refugees, but modern nations have an implicit obligation to minimize human suffering. Well, yes. But Saudi Arabia is not a modern, moral nation. It is a monarchy, a totalitarian autocracy, a hereditary dictatorship, with an abysmal human rights record promoting a particularly toxic version of Islam (Wahabism), which in turn legitimises the Saud dynasty's hold on power. They execute more people than the USA (though less than China and Iran). (Note that I'm saying that it's a terrible political system - many Saudi individuals are fine people and suffering under their regime; just as can be said about North Korea, Iran, etc.) The reason they get away with it is their oil wealth. At any rate, they don't give a rat's ass about refugees, and used to have enough money that they didn't need to care much about anyone's opinion. That is slowly changing, and I hope the country will open up and modernise, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any substantial contribution to the refugee crisis.