UN warns of impact of refugee crisis on global stability

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs Dr Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Muraikhi warned that the continuity of the refugees crisis will lead to a state of instability at both regional and international levels, calling for concerted regional and international efforts to face it.During a session titled “The Legal and Human Dimensions of the Refugees Crisis” at the 17th Doha Forum, Dr al-Muraikhi said that refugee crisis is highly complex and has some political, economic, social and cultural factors, particularly military conflicts and occupation.On the funding allocated for refugees, he said that the United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has provided assistance to all refugees of over US$1bn since the beginning of 2017, adding that the there is still a $7bn funding gap for refugees around the world.He thanked Qatar for its efforts in providing generous aid to face humanitarian crises around the world, while praising the initiatives of Education Above All Foundation which helped hundreds of thousands of children around the world.Dr al-Muraikhi said that the volume of the Qatari assistance to the Syrian people has exceeded US$1.5bn since the beginning of the crisis.Dr al-Muraikhi lauded the efforts of a number of countries that have assumed their responsibilities towards the refugees through the provision of generous assistance, including the GCC countries, a number of European Union countries and the United States, in addition to Turkey, which has received nearly 3mn Syrian refugees, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Germany.He pointed out that the GCC countries host and provide generous humanitarian aid to many Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni refugees in addition to refugees from other countries experiencing conflicts and natural disasters.He warned that the refugee crisis had become a global crisis as a result of the challenges, armed conflicts and protracted crises in addition to climate change effects and its consequences.Dr al-Muraikhi pointed to the serious impact on the vulnerable groups such as children, women and the elderly as a result of forced displacement and prolonged conflicts in a number of countries, especially in the Arab region.Al-Muraikhi also pointed out that internally displaced persons in Syria are subjected to starvation, siege, destruction and killing in a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, indicating the regime and armed groups’ disrespect of the rights of unarmed civilians during conflicts.Al-Muraikhi stressed that the refugee crisis requires innovative and urgent solutions.Meanwhile, delegates taking part in the third plenary session of the 17th Doha Forum under the theme “Political and Economic Impact on Refugee Crisis”, said that the issue of refugees is deeply rooted and would require many years to erase its social and psychological consequences, stressing the need for urgent measures so that this issue does not become a serious disaster.The participants stressed the necessity of dealing with this issue with a new outlook and procedures, co-operation with donors, and developing long-term strategies to deal with the issue through the development and creation of new methodologies to assist the refugees and develop employment opportunities in countries of asylum.Another session entitled “The Impact of Refugees on the Hosting Countries”, discussed the positive and negative effects of refugees, as well as the security, political, social and economic dimensions in this regard.Discussion during the session, focused on the Syrian refugees in the neighboring countries and the Bangladeshi refugees to India, reviewing the burdens borne by these countries in order to host and protect refugees and provide them with the necessities of living in spite of their own need for assistance. In this regard, participants discussed effects of refugees on labour markets in the host countries, as well as their competition to citizens and migrants from other countries.Participants also called on Western countries to open their borders for refugees and work to protect them and provide humanitarian assistance to them.A number of speakers at the session praised Qatar’s support to refugees. They asserted that Qatar is a small country, but it is great in its efforts towards refugees issues.