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UN commissioner praises Kuwait's humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees

Kuwait, UK ready to take Syrian refugees

Egypt billionare offers to buy Med island for refugees

Wars stop 13 million kids from going to school in Middle East




Kuwait, UK ready to take Syrian refugees

04th, September 2015

(Translation of this article appears in Arabic section)

Istanbul/ London — Kuwait has informed the United Nations that it will allow all Syrians currently in the country to remain when their current visas expire, a UN official said on Friday, in a major move for a Gulf Arab state.

There are an estimated 120,000 Syrians in Kuwait at the moment, Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday also promised that Britain will accept thousands more Syrians from UN-sponsored refugee camps and provide extra financial aid, but the initiative appeared unlikely to satisfy his critics.

Britain will take “thousands more Syrian refugees” under UN programmes and allocate an additional 100 million pounds ($153 million) to help people in Syria and neighbouring countries, Cameron said in Madrid after meeting Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Maurice Wren, chief executive of the UK Refugee Council, said Cameron should “be thinking in the tens of thousands.”

“Now we have already accepted around 5,000 Syrians and have introduced a specific resettlement scheme, alongside those we already have, to help those Syrian refugees particularly at risk,” Cameron said following earlier talks in Lisbon.

      Image result for UN commissioner praises Kuwait's humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees

PHOTO: High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres

UN commissioner praises Kuwait's humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees

04/09/2015     

GENEVA-- High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres praised Kuwait on Friday for its role in giving humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees.

Gutterres said at a press conference here that Kuwait spearheads international efforts aimed at addressing the plight of the Syrian refugees, emphasizing that Kuwait, in doing so, is a prime example for non-European countries to follow in dealing with the refugee crisis.

Guterres was holding a joint conference with secretary general of the council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland who urged European governments to deal immediately with the growing problem of the influx of refugees.

  Image result for Egypt billionaire offers to buy Med island for refugees       

PHOTO: Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris said his plan to buy a Mediterranean island for refugees would cost up to $100 million (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

Egypt billionare offers to buy Med island for refugees

September 3, 2015

Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered to buy an island off Greece or Italy and develop it to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from Syria and other conflicts.

The telecoms tycoon first announced the initiative on Twitter.

"Greece or Italy sell me an island, I'll call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country," he wrote.

More than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe since January, many of them Syrians who fled their country's four-and-a-half year conflict.

Sawiris said in a television interview that he would approach the governments of Greece and Italy about his plan.

Asked by AFP whether he believed it could work, he said: "Of course it's feasible."

"You have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees."

Sawiris said an island off Greece or Italy could cost between $10 million and $100 million, but added the "main thing is investment in infrastructure".

There would be "temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals.

"And if things improve, whoever wants to go back (to their homeland) goes back," said Sawiris, whose family developed the popular El Gouna resort on Egypt's Red Sea coast.

He conceded such a plan could face challenges, including the likely difficulty of persuading Greece or Italy to sell an island, and figuring out jurisdiction and customs regulations.

But those who took shelter would be treated as "human beings," he said. "The way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle."

Sawiris is the chief executive of Orascom TMT, which operates mobile telephone networks in a number of Middle Eastern and African countries plus Korea as well as underwater communications networks.

He also owns an Egyptian television channel.

    Image result for Wars stop 13 million kids from going to school in Middle East

PHOTO: Hopes under fire: Refugees fleeing to Europe seek better life for children

Wars stop 13 million kids from going to school in Middle East

03rd, September 2015

BEIRUT: Conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa are preventing more than 13 million children from attending school, leaving their hopes and futures shattered, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in a report issued on Thursday.

The Unicef report “Education Under Fire” looked at the impact of violence on schoolchildren in nine territories, including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya where a generation is growing up outside of the education system.

“It’s no coincidence in that what we see in terms of our TV pictures, the tragic pictures of people crossing on boats to Greece and Italy, very much comes back to the Syrian conflict and (to) the Iraqi conflict to a lesser extent,” Unicef Regional Director Peter Salama said.

Refugees often say the education of their children is their top priority, he said, and many countries in the region simply are not able to provide that basic human right.

The study also looked at Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey — countries neighbouring Syria and hosting large numbers of refugees, as well as Sudan and the Palestinian Territories.

Attacks on schools are one of the main reasons why many children cannot go to classes while many such buildings are now being used

to shelter displaced families or are used as bases for combatants, Unicef said.

In Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya alone, nearly 9,000 schools are unable to be used for education, the report said.

Thousands of teachers across the region have abandoned their posts in fear, which has also stopped parents from sending their children to school, it added.

Countries hosting refugees are struggling to get children into schools because their education systems were never created to absorb such numbers, Salama said.

“Everyone is basically straining at the seams in terms in terms of dealing with this massive crisis, which is not surprising given that it is the biggest population movement since World War Two,” he said.

Children out of school can end up working illegally, often being breadwinners for their family.

They are vulnerable to exploitation and can be more easily recruited into armed groups, he said.

Unicef’s research shows children are increasingly becoming combatants from a younger age, Salama said, while students and teachers have been killed, kidnapped and arrested.

“We’re on the verge of losing an entire generation of children in the Middle East and North Africa. We must step up, otherwise it will be irreversible and long-term damage we’ve collectively inflicted upon the children of this region.”   — Reuters


 














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