UNRWA chief praises Kuwait’s assistance
Kraehenbuehl attends int’l conference on Syria
BRUSSELS, April 5, (KUNA): Pierre Kraehenbuehl, Commissioner General of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has praised three Gulf countries, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE for their generous support and contributions to alleviate the sufferings of the Palestinian refugees.
“My message is one of deep appreciation for Kuwait. Kuwait has been a very engaged partner of ours. We are particularly grateful for Kuwait for the three consecutive years Kuwait provided $15 million 2013, 2014, and 2015 for UNRWA’s Syria emergency response,” he told Kuwait news agency (KUNA) in an exclusive interview here Wednesday.
“This is remarkable because Kuwait was organising the conferences on Syria at that time and really mobilised it around it. This allowed us to have at one point Kuwait as the second-largest contributor to our Syria appeal. This is excellent,” said the UNRWA chief who is in Brussels to attend an international conference on Syria.
Last year Kuwait contributed $5 million to the Syria emergency appeal, and he hoped that we can continue to work with Kuwait to increase that amount this year.
Appointed
Kraehenbuehl was appointed as UNRWA Commissioner General in 2013.
“Something happened in 2015 for which I am particularly grateful for is that Kuwait increased its core contribution to $15 million. It was vital that year to preserve the education because we were on the verge of not being able to open our schools that year,” he stated.
“The rest of the Gulf countries are very significant also. Saudi Arabia has become the third largest donor to UNRWA after the US and the EU. Historically Saudi Arabia has given a lot of money for reconstruction for Gaza Strip” he said.
In the last two years, Saudi Arabia contributed important amount each time $20 million to the core budget of UNRWA.
UNRWA with the UAE had a very dynamic growth in relations over the last few years. Both in terms of government funding for the core budget but also by many of the foundations in UAE, he said. “When I look at those three countries they have been really
are at the forefront for providing us and I hope that we can continue to build on this trusted relationship to ensure that the Palestine refugee dimension remains very high on the agenda of the policymakers,”
he told KUNA.
Kraehenbuehl born in 1966 is a Swiss national and has 25 years of experience in humanitarian, human rights and development work.
He said the objective of his participation in the conference is that Palestinian refugees are integrated into the decision that will be made at the Brussels conference in terms of their funding decisions.
“For me it is very significant that UNRWA is present. I have the opportunity to raise the plight of Palestinian refugees living in Syria,” he said.
The UNRWA chief noted that there were 560,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria before the war. About 120,000 have fled the country to neighbouring countries Jordan , Lebanon, and Turkey. Some have come to Europe. The 440,000 remain in Syria out of whom 65 percent are displaced. They suffer the same way as others in Syria, he said.
Kraehenbuehl said he visited Aleppo last week to visit the Palestinian community there. There are 25,000 who live at a refugee camp.
“Working in conflict zones since 25 years I have never seen the extent of destruction at that scale,” he said.
He lamented that UNRWA is facing funding challenges like many organisation. For Syria UNRWA had launched an emergency appeal for $111 million for this year.
Mobilise
“The projections are that we are mobilising half of that amount It is very, very important that we mobilise more than that,” he stressed.
UNRWA has separately its core activities like education, health care relief and social services where it has shortfall this year of $115 million out of $715 million.
“It is a sizeable gap that later in the year could affect some of our core services if we cannot overcome that,” he warned.
He opined that due to multiplication of crisis in the area, like Syria, Yemen, and Libya has drawn the attention away from the Palestine refugee issue. He explained that the reason why there are Palestine refugees in Syria is because what happened in 1948 and the in 1967 led to the displacement of very large group of Palestinians.
“And this ongoing unresolved political crisis between Israel and Palestine and the ongoing occupation means that there is no solution,” he stated.
He said he does not want to think that the Palestinian refugee children believe that their horizon is UNRWA. “Their horizon should not be UNRWA. Their horizon should be peace, should be dignity should be solution to their plight,” he said.
“This can only be achieved by a very determined political action,” stressed the UNRWA head.
UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 and was mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5 million registered Palestine refugees.
Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.
UNRWA services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection and microfinance.