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UAE pledges Dh250m to support Syrian people

Brussels - The UAE's latest donation will be used to support education for refugees to empower them to find jobs

The United Arab Emirates, UAE, has pledged Dh250 million (US$68 million) to support the Syrian people, Dr. Maytha bint Salem Al Shamsi, Minister of State announced today at the Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, which opened today in the Belgian capital.
The UAE's latest donation will be used to support education for refugees to empower them to find jobs, she said.
"The difficult humanitarian conditions of the brotherly people of Syria remain a concern for the United Arab Emirates which was one of the first countries to undertake the responsibility of easing the suffering of the Syrian people. It is doing this through providing relief and humanitarian aid and exerting political and diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing the conflict to an end and shining a light on the dangerous humanitarian situation in the country to add momentum at the international level to save lives and help restore security and stability," she said in a statement delivered at the two-day conference, co-chaired by the European Union, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Qatar, the United Kingdom and the United Nations.
By end of 2016, total aid provided by the UAE for Syria stood at more than $832 million.
The UAE, she said, is also supporting internally displaced people inside Syria through the Syria Recovery Trust Fund in co-operation with the United States and Germany, as well as Syrian refugees hosted by neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq as well as in Greece and Egypt.
Moreover, the UAE has pledged to host 15,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years. It also helps Syria's neighbours hosting large numbers of refugees to through humanitarian programmes to shoulder this huge humanitarian burden and support their economies through development programmes, she noted.
"The Brussels conference is being held amid exceptional political and humanitarian circumstances that the region is undergoing where an increasing number of refugees and displaced people are losing hope of returning to their countries. This situation requires combined international efforts towards quick solutions to crises in the region, and the conflict in Syria in particular, while doubling the relief and humanitarian efforts to support these refugees and displaced people."
The UAE also set up refugee camps in Iraq, Jordan and Greece, Minister Al Shamsi further noted.
The UAE delegation to the conference includes Sultan Mohammed Al Shamsi, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation for International Development Affairs; Mohammed Eissa Al Suwaidi, UAE Ambassador to Belgium; Mohammed Ismail Al Sahlawi, Deputy Director of European Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, and Sheikha Humood Al Kaabi of the Ministry's Arab Affairs Department.