The EU is the closet first world region. And they are signers to the convention.

Arab world is helping...havent you heard about the huge refugee camps in Jordan?

Some parts of the Arab world are helping, others are not only not helping but making things worse.

Anyway, people from as far away as Afghanistan and Pakistan are now seeking asylum in Europe. We're talking about billions of people that can potentially claim asylum for one reason or another. This isn't going to work. The EU cannot be made responsible for sorting out the problems that afflict the entire region of Africa and the Middle and the Far East.

Being close is no excuse in this globalized world. Also to take refugees there is no need to be a first world country. I should have included China in my previous list.

Completely true, but Jordan is not the only Arab country able to help.

There is also the economic realism that labor will naturally move to where it thinks it can be best off. China is relatively over-populated.

Closeness is an important factor when you realize that there are lots of refugees and that their wealth has been wiped out by war. So while the refugees might have enough money to hike or get a boat or plane ticket, they surely can't afford to fly across the world. And no one should be forced to pay to fly them, either. All they want is the opportunity to build a better life for themselves.

If you've ever been to Russia you will understand why people do not want to seek asylum there - they are as likely to be persecuted there as wherever they're coming from. Russians aren't terribly welcoming to non-Slavic peoples, and don't exactly have a wonderful human rights record, with the pogroms and the kulaks and all that.

Russia is ranked third in the list of countries with the highest immigration behind US and Germany.

Germany moved up to second place in 2015 due to Merkels invite to Africa and the Middle East, the 10 preceding years Russia was always on 2nd place behind US.

So much for Gulags and unwelcoming Russians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_immigrant...

What about Germany and the Nazis concentration camps?

Russia is a big country with a history of immigration from the soviet days, when people from the different republics where made to move to different areas of the country

Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Egypt, and Libya together have taken in a total of 6.7 million refugees. The EU has committed to taking on only 120k refugees.

It appears not to be fair to group Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait with the other states you have listed.

while Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt have taken in around 5 million refugees, and boatloads of the destitute are making their way to Europe, the Gulf states have taken only a few hundred refugees, according to data from the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR).

http://www.dw.com/en/arab-monarchies-turn-down-syrian-refuge...

I thought that was because Saudi Arabia doesn't call them refugees but "Arab brothers and sisters in distress". The number of such people is quite contentious, if https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrians_in_Saudi_Arabia is any evidence. There may be 500K such people "in distress."

FWIW, unlike the EU countries, Saudi Arabia isn't signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention.

Thanks for pointing that out. It's clearly been very heavily politicised.

What? Germany alone got over a million of refugees in 2015 alone.

Correct. Also, let's not forget the Ukraine crisis, which brought ~900.000 refugees to neighboring countries (Poland and Russia mostly).

This is actually a myth. No idea about Russia but last time I checked Poland accepted 3 refuges from Ukraine. Three. Over 400k work visas have been issued in 2015 but its a totally different thing. These ppl get nothing from Polish state, no language lessons, no accommodation, no food. Nothing except for permit to work (and pay taxes). So its very different level of effort than with actual refuges (like ie Germany that's running out of space to shelter new ppl). Ukrainians that applied for asylum where denied on grounds that only part of Ukraine is as war and they can seek shelter in other, safe parts.