Qatar among top donor countries to support refugees around the world, says UNHCR

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Representative to the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC)KhaledKhalifaonThursday said Qatar was one of the largest donor governments, which cooperates with international institutions and international organisations providing relief and support for refugees in the Arab region and abroad.

The UNHCR official told Qatar News Agency (QNA) on the sidelines of the International Government Communication Forum which concludes in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, Thursday that Qatar is distinguished by an on-the-ground presence of a large number of its non-governmental organisations in terms of number and quality of performance in various countries of asylum.

He pointed out that the GCC countries are among the most countries, which support the refugees and ranked among the top 20 donor countries in the world, nothing in this regard the growing cooperation with UN organisations over the recent period to meet the challenges.

Kuwait has hosted three Conferences to support Syria, which raised nearly US$7 billion, he said, adding that the UAE plays a pioneer role in this field.

Khalifa said that there are more than 16.7 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate and 4.5 million refugees under United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)’s mandate while the Arab region hosts 39 per cent of them.

The crisis of Syrian refugees is one of the biggest challenges facing the world at present, he said, pointing that more than six million Syrian refugees are registered with the UN including 2.7 million in Turkey, 1.1 million in Lebanon and 656,000 in Jordan.