KUWAIT CITY, June 21: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), under the patronage of Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, celebrated Monday the World Refugee Day under the slogan, “Whoever. Wherever. Whenever. Everyone has the right to seek safety.” The representative of the sponsor of the ceremony, Assistant Foreign Minister for International Organizations Affairs, Counselor Abdulaziz Al- Jarallah, confirmed in a statement to reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony the permanent interest of the State of Kuwait and its political leadership to support refugees around the world without any discrimination.

Al-Jarallah said that the world needs to find radical solutions to the refugee crisis, who number about 100 million, through a sincere political will from the international community to solve the roots of confl icts and achieve the voluntary return of refugees to their homes. He expressed his pride in the UN’s recognition of Kuwait as a global center for humanitarian action, in addition to naming the late Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah ‘leader of humanitarian action’, stressing the continuation of Kuwait’s peace-oriented approach under the directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. For her part, UNHCR representative to the country, Nasreen Rabaian, praised, in a similar statement, the wise vision of the government of the State of Kuwait by rehabilitating the infrastructure of the international humanitarian partnership with the private and charitable sector. Rabaian said that Kuwait is an example of the UNHCR’s strategic partnership and a major supporter of it with assistance that covered the needs of more than 10 million refugees and displaced people around the world.

She stated that the refugee is facing, in addition to persecution, extreme poverty and insecurity, a severe shortage of health and medicine services, and a scarcity of funding for humanitarian operations due to the economic challenges caused by the COVID- 19 pandemic. She added that the number of refugees and internally displaced persons reached a record high by the end of last year, as the number of people displaced by wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations reached 89.3 million, an increase of 8 percent over the previous year and more than double the number 10 years ago. She stressed the importance of concerted efforts with all partners from countries, governments, individuals, charities and the private sector to support humanitarian activities in order to alleviate the suffering of people who fall under the mandate of the Commission and meet their urgent needs in more than 137 countries and regions in which UNHCR works to build humanitarian relations with them and secure a future for them. The World Refugee Day, set by the United Nations on June 20 of each year in honor of refugees around the world, is an occasion to mobilize sympathy and understanding of their plight and recognize their determination to rebuild their lives , (KUNA)