RIYADH — The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) celebrated the World Refugee Day.

The day is celebrated on June 20 each year to express solidarity with the refugees, celebrate their resilience and appreciate the communities that welcome and host them.

On this occasion, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, general supervisor of KSrelief, said celebrating the International Day of Refugees comes in coordination with the UNHCR to highlight the strategic partnership between UNHCR and the Center.

More than 70 million refugees and displaced people live outside their own countries and communities, and unfortunately most of them are from countries such as Palestine, Syria, Somalia, South Sudan and Myanmar, he said.

Al-Rabeeah stressed the keenness of the Kingdom to support refugees, whether they "are inside the Kingdom where they are treated as visitors, or in other countries where we support them with the care, food and medicine they need."

He pointed out that the Kingdom carried out more than 129 humanitarian projects spending an amount exceeding $170 million for refugees living in other countries.

The "visitors" from Yemen, Syria and Myanmar who live in the Kingdom exceeded 1 million, making up 5 percent of the total population of the Kingdom. They cost the Saudi government $9.8 billion annually. — SPA