The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is expected to adopt a plan of action to manage the refugee situation in its member countries during an international ministerial conference on “Refugees in the Muslim World” on May 11 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Ambassador Atta Al-Mannan Bakhit, OIC Assistant Secretary General, announced at a press conference here Sunday that the main objective of the Ashgabat conference is to highlight the organization's support for member states as they assist large-scale refugee populations, and the mandate and responsibility of the UNHCR towards refugees. “In Ashgabat, the conference will announce the new vision towards the refugees of the Islamic world, in addition to the implementation of a new memorandum which will include a study on the main reasons behind the phenomenon of refugees. The conference also aims to promote awareness of the scope and nature of the refugee problem in the Islamic world,” he said. He noted that further political turmoil could increase the number of refugees in the Islamic World to 18 million. “Actually, those conflicts, including the uprisings in the Arab world, last year forced 3.5 million people to leave their homes, a 20 percent rise from 2010,” he said. Speaking about the situation in Syria, Bakhit announced that the OIC has a new humanitarian program ready to help the Syrian people inside their country but was still waiting for permission from the Syrian government. He noted that one million people in Syria need urgent humanitarian assistance. He added that “the new program has been passed to the members of the OIC and we really praise the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its full commitment to such humanitarian actions”. “Turkey has recently been experiencing a refugee crisis on its southern border due to the security situation in Syria. Around 25,000 Syrian refugees are housed in tent cities in the provinces of Gaziantep, Hatay and ?anl?urfa,” he said. Regarding the upcoming conference in Ashgabat, representatives of 40 international and regional organizations, and observers from 21 countries, are expected to attend. Delegations from the United States, Russia, China, Australia and the European Union are among the observers. The OIC is the largest international Muslim organization and includes 57 countries with a combined population of about 1.2 billion people. __
