Geneva - Media & Communication Dept. - December 08
The State of Qatar has renewed its commitment to continue providing the necessary support to the activities and programs of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in order to enhance its capabilities to overcome the challenges and difficulties facing its operations in various parts of the world, to alleviate the suffering of refugees and to improve their living conditions.
This came in the State of Qatar's statement delivered by Deputy Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar in Geneva Jawhara Abdulaziz Al Suwaidi during "The 2022 High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges, which focuses on the theme of development cooperation and "preparing an enabling policy environment for solutions".
The responsibility to protect refugees and internally displaced persons and to achieve durable solutions for them is primarily the responsibility of states whose full and effective cooperation, action and political determination are indispensable to enable the international community to perform its humanitarian tasks, she stressed.
The UNHCR's global appeal for 2023 said that more than 100 million people around the world were forced to flee, the highest levels of displacement recorded, she said, welcoming the efforts made by countries to take into account international and regional rules and standards in their domestic laws and national development plans, with the aim of facilitating voluntary, safe, sustainable and dignified return of refugees and their local integration or resettlement in their own countries.
She stressed the importance of strengthening regional initiatives that facilitate collaborative policies and approaches on refugees, adding that the State of Qatar encourages the continuing efforts of countries to address the priorities of people in need of international protection in their regions.
She highlighted that the support provided by the State of Qatar is not limited to financial, humanitarian, food, medical and other aid, but also includes diplomatic efforts to end conflicts in countries whose populations have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict, as is the case with support for Afghan refugees.
Al Suwaidi noted that the State of Qatar has made active diplomatic and political efforts over many years in the context of facilitating negotiations between local and international parties to the conflict to end the war in Afghanistan, and has also facilitated the evacuation of 80,000 people, including Afghans who were under grave threat as well as foreign nationals and provided them with basic services such as shelter and health care, and also operated a humanitarian air bridge to transport more than 800 tons of emergency supplies to help displaced and vulnerable families in the country.
The State of Qatar, she said, is a member of the Core Group for the Support Platform for the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR), which was established in 2019 to assist Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan in coordinating their efforts to promote solutions for Afghan refugees and to implement the solutions strategy adopted by the three countries, with the approval of the international community and support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2012.
She noted that the Qatar Fund for Development announced last September a contribution of $5 million to the United Nations Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan to support the region-based approach to development emergency initiatives led by the United Nations Development Program in Afghanistan with the aim of restoring access to basic and essential services and protecting livelihoods and supporting the local economic recovery of the people of Afghanistan, explaining that this contribution forms part of the $25 million pledge of the State of Qatar that was announced during the High-level Pledging Event on Supporting the Humanitarian Response in Afghanistan in March 2022.
Deputy Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar in Geneva Jawhara Abdulaziz Al Suwaidi said that the Qatar Fund for Development and Education Above All recently launched the "Qatar Afghan Scholarship Project" and received the first cohort of 250 Afghan students, split equally among women and men, as well as from a number of countries in which they were forced to seek asylum. They were enrolled in US colleges and universities for the 2022-2023 academic year, she said, noting that this project will support Afghan students and build the foundations for greater prosperity for the country in the future.