UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has concluded a two-day visit to the State of Kuwait with a call for more support to assist vulnerable refugees and displaced people, with displacement numbers at an all-time high of 103 million and in a time of increasingly pressing humanitarian needs.
The visit included high-level meetings with senior government officials and representatives of Kuwaiti charitable organizations and the private sector.
In a meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Sabah, Grandi commended Kuwait’s commitment to alleviating the suffering of the most vulnerable displaced people and thanked the people and government for their contributions, solidarity, and humanitarian efforts.
The High Commissioner also met with the Director General of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), Marwan Al-Ghanem, and signed an agreement to support infrastructure development for internally displaced people and their host communities in Yemen. The agreement aims to support the paving of roads and alleyways, the installation of solar-powered street lighting, the repair and maintenance of rainwater drainage facilities, and connecting households to water and sewage systems. The agreement will also support solid waste management in Basateen neighbourhood on the outskirts of Aden Governorate, which is home to 70,000 vulnerable individuals including internally displaced people and refugees.
Grandi thanked KFAED for its support in assisting forcibly displaced people in the region and beyond. “With this partnership, Kuwait and UNHCR intensify joint efforts in addressing the growing humanitarian needs,” he said. “Thanks to the contribution, we will be able to help address the needs of the most vulnerable internally displaced people in Yemen.”
Discussions with representatives of Kuwaiti charitable organizations, the private sector, and prominent philanthropists emphasized the importance of working together and sharing the responsibility of supporting the most vulnerable displaced people in the region and beyond. The High Commissioner reiterated the need for enhanced solidarity to address the ever-growing humanitarian needs, exacerbated by recent, emerging and protracted crises.
The UN High Commissioner’s bio can be found here.
For more on UNHCR Kuwait office, please visit the website here.
For more information, please contact:
- In Dubai, Khaled Kabbara, Communications Officer, +97150641086, kabbara@unhcr.org
- In Kuwait, Loulwah Al-Tarkeet, External Relations Officer, +96597883866, tarkeet@unhcr.org
- In Ottawa, Levon Sevunts, +1 613-286-6975, sevunts@unhcr.org
