(MENAFN- Saudi Press Agency)
Geneva, Muharram 14, 1439, October 04, 2017, SPA --The Executive Committee of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began its 68th session in Geneva today .
The Kingdom's representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Abdulaziz Al-Wasel, delivered the Kingdom's speech in which he stressed that the Kingdom's government pays great attention to refugees in the world and their sufferings and plays an active role in this field through providing assistance .
Ambassador Al-Wasel pointed out that the Kingdom supports the projects of the UNHCR in several regions of the world. As for Syrians, the Kingdom treats them as citizens and has received about 291,000 Syrians and provided them with free health services as well as educational services, available opportunities to work in the labor market, 114,000 students enrolled in government schools in all stages. They have also participated in the labor market.
As for Yemenis, the Kingdom has received about 603,833 Yemenis since the beginning of the crisis in Yemen where their situations have been corrected for regular residence, and 285,000 Yemeni students were enrolled in public schools and provided with necessary services.
The Ambassador pointed out that King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid has implemented several projects for brothers in the Republic of Yemen in a number of fields such as food security, living, and education, where the number of projects in Yemen is about 153 projects, including 59 projects in food security and sheltering, 18 projects in education, protection and early recovery, 66 projects in health, nutrition, water and environmental sanitation, 10 projects in emergency communications and logistics with an amount of 629,541,898 million US dollars; the total of the Kingdom's contribution to Yemen since March 2015 was about 8 billion US dollars.
He added that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pays attention to the status of Rohingyas refugees and the royal directive issued by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid for allocating $ 15 million to Rohingyas and the Center visited Manojan refugee camp in the Republic of Bangladesh, which includes 100,000 refugees in coordination with the Bangladeshi governmental authorities and the International Organization for Migration.
The Ambassador pointed out that the cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Nations institutions and bodies in general, and refugee and humanitarian affairs in particular, is continuing, expressing the Saudi aspiration for the forthcoming visit of the High Commissioner for Refugees to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia next week.
--SPA
16:14 LOCAL TIME 13:14 GMT