The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) was the first organization to visit Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh to assess their needs, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has revealed.
KSRelief signed an agreement with the UNHCR on Wednesday for a joint project to “establish mutually beneficial cooperation aimed at assisting the vulnerable and disadvantaged, through which both parties will support refugees and host communities.”
The agreement was signed by Grandi, and the supervisor general of KSRelief, Abdullah Al-Rabeeah.
Al-Rabeeah told reporters that “the Kingdom stands with the needy around the world and has assisted victims in 38 countries through the provision of 232 humanitarian and relief programs.”
Al-Rabeeah said the Kingdom hosts 561,911 Yemeni refugees, 262,573 Syrian refugees and more than 300,000 Burmese refugees, and has provided them with all necessary facilities and services to enjoy a dignified life.
Following the signing, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a press statement that KSRelief has helped the UN on many occasions.
“I recently met with the center’s delegation in Bangladesh,” Grandi said. “(KSRelief) was the first organization to visit the Rohingya refugee camps, where some 500,000 refugees from Myanmar stay, to assess their needs.”
That was just one example of the center’s work, Grandi explained. “There are also many examples in Yemen and Syria.”
He added that the new agreement “makes our cooperation stronger. The overall framework of the project will give very important support at the institutional level, and we are now in a real partnership with the center.”