Over the past three decades, Saudi Arabia has provided humanitarian assistance to 81 countries around the world, while hosting about 12 million people of various nationalities, according to Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Advisor to the Royal Court and General Supervisor of the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid (KSRelief).
“The Kingdom's efforts in foreign aid have always been on the rise until they reached a record in the last few years,” he said during a seminar held on Thursday, titled “Saudi Humanitarian Aid between the Past and the Present” on the sidelines of the Warsaw International Humanitarian Expo.
“Saudi aid, since 1996 and until 2018, has reached more than 86 billion dollars,” he added.
“Since its inception, KSRelief has implemented 1,011 projects in 44 countries worth $3.4 billion with 225 projects worth $389 million targeting women and 234 projects worth over $529 million targeting children,” he said.
Al-Rabeeah added: “Saudi Arabia hosts 12 million immigrants of different nationalities representing 37 percent of its population, making it rank second in the world in the number of immigrants, preceded only by the United States.”
He noted that 561,911 of these immigrants were Yemenis, 262,573 were Syrians and 249,669 were from Myanmar.
He said that Saudi aid to Yemen exceeded $12 billion since 2015, including aid provided through KSRelief, aid provided to Yemeni refugees inside the Kingdom, development and government assistance, and support allocated to the Central Bank of Yemen.
Al-Rabeeah added that KSRelief supported 78 projects worth $352.9 million in Palestine, 191 projects worth $267 million in Syria, and 11 projects worth $6 million in Djibouti.
