RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently marked the occasion of World Refugee Day at KSrelief’s headquarters in Riyadh. During the event, KSrelief and UNHCR expressed their solidarity with all refugees, and expressed their admiration for the host communities who stand with people in need and help them to cope with traumatic circumstances.

On this occasion, Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Supervisor General of KSrelief stated that, “Today, on World Refugee Day, we remember the more than 70 million refugees and IDPs worldwide who are forced to live outside their own communities and countries.

“Most of these refugees and IDPs are from countries in crisis, including Palestine, Syria, Somalia, South Sudan and Myanmar. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is very keen to support and care for these groups; we even welcome refugees as visitors to live in Saudi Arabia and provide them with free education, health care and the opportunity to seek employment.

“The number of refugees (visitors) living in the Kingdom who have come from Yemen, Syria and Myanmar exceeds one million, a number which represents five percent of the Saudi national population. The Kingdom has provided more than 9.8 billion US Dollars in support for these vulnerable groups.

“We also support refugees throughout the world, providing them with the shelter, food, health care and other assistance they need. Saudi Arabia has carried out more than 129 projects at a total cost of more than 170 million US Dollars to help refugees living in other countries.”

Khaled Khalifa, GCC Regional Representative of UNHCR, made these remarks “Our participation with KSrelief, which represents the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in celebrating world refugee day, highlights our joint efforts to meet the challenges facing refugees everywhere.” He called for the sharing of responsibilities and the burden of responding to refugees’ humanitarian needs, and for developing successful aid partnerships to help refugees meet their basic needs for food, education, shelter and other essentials.

Saudi Arabia is among the largest donor countries in the world, and one of the largest donors to UNCHR worldwide. Since 2013, Saudi Arabia has contributed USD 239 million to support UNHCR, USD 53 million of which has been provided through KSrelief.

There are now about 70.8 million displaced people around the world, 25.9 million of whom are refugees outside their countries. As part of this year's World Refugee Day events, many communities and other groups have held events to express their support for refugees and IDPs everywhere.