JERUSALEM, December 7, 2017 (WAFA) – The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) Thursday reaffirmed in a press release its strong partnership with the United Kingdom.

According to a press release issued by UNRWA, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA Pierre Krähenbühl has concluded a two-day visit to London in which he met the Secretary of State for International Development Penny Mordaunt, and the Minister of State for International Development and Minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alistair Burt.

He also had a meeting in Parliament with the Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn.

Krähenbühl briefed his British counterparts on UNRWA‘s work with over five million registered Palestine refugees across the Middle East, including over half a million students attending some seven hundred UNRWA schools. 

“It was important for me to come to London to reaffirm once more our essential partnership with the United Kingdom and thank its government, parliamentarians and the British people for their invaluable support,” said Krähenbühl.

“With British funds, our services in education, health, relief and social services bring a sense of hope and preserve the rights and dignity of some of the most vulnerable people in Gaza, the West Bank, including East-Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.”

“Our human development work at a time of heightened conflict and refugee anxiety is of particular importance, providing a measure of stability in an increasingly uncertain Middle East,” he added.

Krähenbühl addressed a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group chaired by Richard Burden, on the theme of “the Middle East in crisis: the search for the rights and dignity of Palestine refugees.”

He also gave the main address at a meeting in Parliament of the Muslim Charities Forum convened by Andrew Mitchell, MP, and Hany El-Banna the co-founder of Islamic Relief.

While in London Krähenbühl delivered a lecture titled, "The Human Cost of Conflict: the Search for Dignity and Rights of Palestine Refugees" to over three hundred students at the London School of Economics, at the invitation of Professor Chetan Bhatt, Director of the LSE‘s Centre for the Study of Human Rights.

In rejecting the idea that war was inevitable, Krähenbühl made the case for humanitarian action and for conflict to be prevented rather than "managed".

He made a passionate plea for the protection of the rights of Palestine refugees and for the full respect of international humanitarian law.

K.F/M.H