The homelessness crisis in Britain has worsened significantly, reaching record levels. Around 4,793 people are sleeping rough on the streets in England alone, while estimates by charities point to hundreds of thousands of people experiencing homelessness in its various forms. These are the latest figures, cited by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who has outlined plans to provide a route off the streets for those sleeping rough by Christmas, as part of efforts to curb homelessness nationwide.
The report cited several reasons for the worsening crisis, including record rental prices and rising living costs, a severe shortage of available social housing, as well as economic pressures and increasing breakdown within family households. In my view, these factors would not have created such a problem had there been a social solidarity system similar to those found in our Gulf countries.
We take pride, thank God, in the fact that there are no homeless people sleeping on the streets in any Gulf country, nor even tents set up for anyone to spend the night in. This is not because there are no refugees or foreign residents, nor because there are no poor or low-income citizens. Quite the contrary. The Gulf countries are home to millions of foreigners from every part of the world, East and West. We also have millions of Arab residents from countries facing severe conflicts that force their citizens to emigrate, and many of them live in the Gulf.
The total number of foreigners and migrant workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries exceeds 26 million, out of a regional population of more than 63 million. Expatriates constitute the overwhelming majority of the population in countries such as the UAE and Qatar, while their proportions vary across the other countries. Yet all of them are treated with dignity and respect. They have jobs, their children attend schools, and no one goes hungry or loses their home among us.
In any of the six Gulf countries, you cannot pass by someone lying on the ground or by the roadside and simply walk past without concern. This is not due solely to the financial means, prosperity, and oil resources enjoyed by the peoples of the region. The main reason this phenomenon has been prevented from taking root lies primarily in the "system of values" shared by the peoples of this region, whose roots and origins are similar across all six countries, whether religious or customary. What our faith has taught us, together with the customs and traditions we have inherited, including the principle that no one among us should go hungry when we have the means to share with them, has reinforced a system of social solidarity in which no person is left without support, regardless of that person's sex, religion, or status in the country, and without distinction between citizen and resident.
Arab customs and Islamic values have created a unique system of social solidarity. These values have been evident in every crisis and disaster that has struck the region, whether wars or pandemics such as COVID-19. In each case, the human being has been the central concern, with the right to protection and care upheld without discrimination based on sex, religion, or race.
Our countries have not limited their care to those living within their borders. The helping hands of the Gulf states have extended far beyond them, with their humanitarian assistance accounting for more than 21 percent of total global aid. The GCC-Stat has announced that the total value of relief and humanitarian aid provided by the Gulf Cooperation Council countries reached $6.1 billion, placing the GCC states at the forefront of humanitarian action worldwide.
