Saudi Arabia will maintain leading role in giving humanitarian aid

The KSRelief works on developing partnerships with pioneering organizations in humanitarian work and ensures an immediate response in the cases of crisis. (SPA)

RIYADH: President of the Shoura Council Abdullah Al-Asheikh is leading the Kingdom’s delegation participating in the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The assembly, which began on Saturday in Geneva, will be on the theme of “Strengthening the global regime for migrants and refugees: The need for evidence-based policy solutions.”
In a news conference, Al-Asheikh announced that Saudi Arabia feels the suffering of all people in distress and in need around the world and seeks to assist them and support them. The Kingdom has achieved an advanced place among the top 10 countries in providing aid for migrants, refugees, victims of natural disasters and other people in need, he added.
He said the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid (KSRelief) is an international portal to deliver humanitarian, relief and charitable aid.
Al-Asheikh stressed the Kingdom’s efforts to ensure the care of Syrian refugees. It has received more than a million-and-a-half Syrian citizens and made sure not to deal with them as refugees nor to place them in refugee camps. The Kingdom has also granted them full freedom of movement and offered legal residence for the thousands who wished to stay and treated them as the rest of the residents, giving them free medical care and education. Saudi Arabia is also supporting millions of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, including Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Its efforts also covered financial and in-kind humanitarian assistance in coordination with hosting governments of other countries and International humanitarian relief organizations.
He said the Kingdom is dealing with Yemeni residents as visitors as they now have nothing to do with their legitimate government. The KSA has granted many concessions to more than half a million Yemenis, exempting them from fines and other penalties. The Kingdom is also assisting Yemeni refugees in Yemen, Djibouti and Somalia.
Al-Asheikh also said the Kingdom will continue exerting humanitarian efforts to preserve humans’ dignity, without any political motivations but in line with the instructions of King Salman, one of the world’s pioneers in the field of humanitarian and charitable work.