The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today expressed deep concern about the increasing hostile, racist and inhuman rhetoric against refugees in general, and Muslim refugees in particular. The kingdom called on states and humanitarian agencies, civil society organizations and the media to abandon any racist speech and contribute to raising awareness and responsibility in order to provide the necessary protection for the displaced and refugees who fled the fire of unfair authorities and terrorist groups. This came today in the kingdom's speech delivered by Deputy Permanent Representative of the Delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Adviser Saad bin Abdullah Al-Saad before a meeting of the General Assembly on Agenda Item 130: "Global awareness of the tragedies of irregular migrants in the Mediterranean basin, with specific emphasis on Syrian asylum seekers." Al-Saad said, "We are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster since Second World War as the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirms that there are nearly 20 million refugees and 40 million displaced people, numbers that are increasing every day amid lack of funding and absence of appropriate mechanisms for protection. The Syrian crisis is the biggest humanitarian tragedy of the twentieth century. The number of forced refugees and displaced people is more than half of Syria's population as the number of forced refugees reached more than four million people, according to the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the number of the displaced exceeded seven and a half million people, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Syrian refugees fleeing to neighboring countries have been a major challenge in trying to meet the basic needs of the refugees, provision of shelter, education and health care in order to preserve the dignity of refugees and ensure their protection." Al-Saad added, "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is always ready to cooperate with various United Nations organs to deal with this worsening humanitarian disaster by working to provide adequate solutions to protect and provide appropriate financial support and provide support to countries receiving refugees. Al-Saad explained that "the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has received since the beginning of the Syrian crisis 2.5 million Syrian refugees and has been careful not to treat them as refugees or put them in refugee camps in order to preserve their dignity and safety, and gave them complete freedom of movement, and awarded those who wanted to stay in the kingdom, who have reached hundreds of thousands, legal residence like the rest of expatriates, with all consequent rights to free health care, work and education as the number of Syrian students totaled more than 100 thousand Syrian students receiving free education. Saudi efforts have not been confined to receiving and hosting the Syrian brothers after their humanitarian tragedy in their country, but extended to include support and care for millions of Syrian refugees in their country's neighboring states, Jordan, Lebanon and other states. The efforts included providing humanitarian assistance in coordination with the governments of their host countries, as well as with international humanitarian relief organizations, whether through financial or in-kind support." --More 23:38 LOCAL TIME 20:38 GMT تغريد
