UN High Commissioner for Refugees welcomes increased Muslim donations

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced Friday that it is receiving more funding thanks to special initiatives launched in recent years to raise donations from Muslims.

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One day after the start of Ramadan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) revealed the positive results of its initiative to raise funds through zakat and charity. About $200 million has been raised since the Zakat Fund initiative launched in 2017, which also includes charities.

Zakat is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and requires allocation of 2.5% of annual net income.

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“Over the past five years, we have managed to help six million people, mostly in Muslim countries, through zakat and charity,” Khalid Khalifa, UNHCR GCC representative, told a news conference in Geneva.

With these funds, UNHCR supports vulnerable people in 26 countries. Communities receiving the most support are Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, IDPs in Yemen and Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the foundation received $21.3 million from zakat last year and $16.7 million from charities. Khalifa added that the aid is mainly aimed at Muslim-majority countries, but “we don’t just help Muslims and we don’t divide recipients on the basis of religion.”

But he emphasized that Islamic philanthropy is “just a drop in the bucket” compared to UNHCR’s multibillion-dollar global budget. “I expect it to be much bigger in the future,” he continued.

The fund’s largest shareholder is Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah bin Thani Al Thani of Qatar, who contributed more than $110 million. Khalifa confirmed that the foundation is trying to reduce its reliance on “big donors … and rely more on smaller individual donors.” “Last year we raised over $20 million in the month of Ramadan alone,” he added, “and we hope to surpass that number this year.