Q Life Magazine Q Magazine (US) December 2015 | Page 70

| Issue 1 Qatar aid to Syrians tops $1.7 billion I n the four years since the Syrian Civil War began in the spring of 2011, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than 220,000 people have been killed. Four million Syrians have left the country and another 6.5 million have been internally displaced, from a pre-war population of less than 18 million. In an interview with the British political magazine the New Statesman, published on September 29, 2015, Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Khalid Al-Attiyah says that Qatar’s government and related institutions have sent more than $1.7 billion in aid to the Syrian people since the Civil War began: $1.6 billion in humanitarian aid plus $160 million from Qatar’s semi- governmental institutions. Qatar has also led the way in recognizing moderate Syrian opposition groups and has backed efforts to provide 70 educational opportunities for refugees. To assist those leaving the war zone, Qatar has eased visa restrictions for Syrian nationals arriving in the country. As of November 2015, there were almost 54,000 Syrians living in Qatar; 47,000 have full residency permits and another 7,000 are on renewable visitor visas. Twenty- five thousand of these Syrians have arrived during the past four years, as the Civil War escalated. With its usual focus on education, Qatar has built two schools for the Syrian community in Doha, the first of which was completed in 2012. Through Educate a Child, an initiative of Education Above All, Qatar is also contributing to the education of 600,000 displaced children inside and outside of Syria. Additionally, the country has provided support for 100 Syrian “The suffering of the Syrian people is not an issue of religion, ethnicity or nationality. It is a human issue. The duty is therefore shared among all of us in the international community — East and West, Arab and non-Arab.” Dr. Khalid Al-Attiyah Minister of Foreign Affairs