Ms. Ragnhild Ek, Senior External Relations Officer of the United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR Egypt) paid a visit to October 6 University on 3/11/2015, and participated in a symposium, along with three officials from the staff of the UNHCR office in Egypt, in which they cited the activities of UNHCR in Egypt and the Middle East.
The symposium addressed the refugee definition in international law, international conventions that govern the refugees, as well as international protection mechanisms.The Committee also touched on Egypt's role in dealing with the problems of refugees.
Ragnhild has also praised the positive role played by Egypt in hosting a lot of refugees especially from Syria, Iraq, Sudan and other African countries particularly in the fields of education, health, building capacities, mentioning that Egypt has an old history in hosting refugee even before the International Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951.
She pointed in particular to Egypt's hosting of the leaders of the African liberation movements in the sixties.
A large number of students took part in the symposium where they interacted with a number of inquiries and questions, and at the end of the symposium the International Officer promised to repeat this visit to the University in recognition of its role in receiving a growing number of refugee students to study and in providing all the means to help them.