Refugee quota

Perhaps some of your very knowledgeable readers, the same ones advocating a large increase in refugee admittance, can explain to the rest of us why all these Syrian Muslim refugees are fleeing only to Western Europe, and not to Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, Iran, Tunisia, Morocco and any other country populated by fellow Muslims, and in a lot of cases, much closer geographically.

I might have missed it, but I don’t recall hearing any announcements from any of these fellow Muslim countries advising the United Nations of the numbers they are prepared to take in.

It surely couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the countries they are aiming for in Europe all have generous social welfare systems, could it?

I thought it was all about escaping war, oppression and danger. Maybe that’s not the whole story, eh?

Steve Inness

Whitianga

am anxious to not become guilty of a ‘‘crime of inaction’’ of similar proportions.

Our government hasn’t increased the refugee intake quota for more than 28 years. I understand that the 750 places we offer put us at 90th rank per capita and 116th rank if we also take relative wealth into account. Disturbing indeed. Worse still, we rarely have filled the agreed quota. At the same time, we learn that, at least here in Hamilton, one of the country’s dedicated resettlement centres, refugee support services have the capacity to welcome more refugees (‘‘Waikato refugee services want refugee quota increased’’, Waikato Times, June 30).

In New Zealand, we often question and challenge ourselves to do better in the sporting arenas; why not challenge ourselves to do better in this far more important arena of saving and improving peoples’ lives?

Sabine Pahl

Hamilton