In a statement issued on the occasion of the World Refugee Day on Monday, which is being marked this year with the slogan, “One Refugee, Without Hope, Is Too Many,” Adnan Khalil Basha, secretary-general of IIROSA, underlined the noble objectives of the event and urged all governments and humanitarian organizations at local, regional and international levels to provide relief assistance consisting of foodstuffs, medicines, clothes and accommodation facilities to refugees and displaced people, especially those who were forced by recent political events in a number of Arab and African countries to leave their homes.
Basha further stated that despite its limited resources, IIROSA has extended more than SR1 billion to about 22 million refugees in 42 countries through 1,057 relief campaigns.
He added that out of its deep concern for the sufferings of the Palestinian people, IIROSA has provided humanitarian and relief assistance to more than 808,000 Palestinians in various refugee camps at a cost of more than SR40 million.
“This humanitarian assistance was extended through cooperation and coordination with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East,” he said.
The secretary-general commended the noble humanitarian role being undertaken by the UNRWA, calling for all-out support to enable it to assist the Palestinian people.
“The observation of this day must be considered as an occasion to express care, concern and keenness for the refugees and to expedite the provision of humanitarian support to this segment of people who were forced to abandon their homes,” he said.
Basha called for more efforts to assist refugees who are estimated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to number about 10 million and called for expanding the UN definition of a refugee to include all the displaced and migrants who were forced by political turmoil and conflicts in their countries to run for safety in other areas in their own countries or neighboring countries.
“With their number crossing 4.6 million, the Palestinian refugees are the single largest group of refugees in the world. They have to be helped to go back home. The world should make strenuous efforts to put an end to their plight of more than 60 years,” he said.
The secretary-general recalled that the UNHCR had estimated the number of refugees in the world at the beginning of 2006 to be 8.6 million and said the Palestinians constituted more than half. “So they are more worthy of care and help,” he said.
Basha said the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants puts the number of the world refugees at 62 million, including 34 million internally displaced people. “It is not important to agree on their exact number but what is important is what are we doing to protect them, rehabilitate them and provide them with humanitarian help,” he said.
Basha said IIROSA was assigned the task of running the Rafha and Artawiyyah refugee camps in the Kingdom, which house more than 39,000 displaced Iraqis.
He added that in appreciation of its relief assistance extended to Tutsi and Hutu refugees from Rwanda and Burundi, the UNHCR selected IIROSA to run the Mosohora hospital for refugees in Tanzania since early 1996 until the refugees returned home. In addition to administering the hospital, the organization also provided it with some medicines and equipped the gynecology section.
He said IIROSA in collaboration with the World Food Program (WFP) is currently running two camps for the displaced in Darfur, west Sudan.
One-hundred-and-forty-seven countries signed in Geneva on July 28, 1951, the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which provides legal protection and extends humanitarian assistance to this category of people after the influx of refugees from Eastern Europe to Western Europe and the US during World War II.
