Queen to receive int’l prize for intercultural dialogue effort

AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Rania will on Thursday receive the Walther Rathenau Prize at an award ceremony to be hosted by Germany for her humanitarian work and efforts to promote cross-cultural dialogue and understanding. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will present Her Majesty with the award during a ceremony to be held at World Hall-Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, Her Majesty’s office said in a statement. 

The Walther Rathenau Prize has been awarded annually since 2008, acknowledging outstanding work in foreign policy and bridging gaps between peoples and cultures.

Meanwhile, Queen Rania has called on European leaders to agree on a “holistic and cohesive” policy for tackling the refugee crisis.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Her Majesty said the arrival of 1.4 million Syrian refugees into Jordan had caused “immense strain” on the country’s economy.

“This crisis has had an impact on us for coming up to five years now,” she said.

“We have had a wave of refugees coming into Jordan. To date we have 1.4 million Syrians in Jordan — 630,000 of them are registered refugees.”

“That’s 20 per cent of our population. To put that into context for you, it’s the equivalent of 12 million people coming to the UK, or 16 million going to Germany,” she told the channel. 

“It has really been an immense strain on our economy, on our public services, on our infrastructure, and it has really overwhelmed our capacity to cope with the issue.”

Queen Rania said Europe must form a “consensus” on how to cope with the refugee crisis.

“What would be ideal is to seek a consensus in Europe — a holistic and cohesive policy towards dealing with the refugees,” she said.

“That will encourage other nations in the world to also be part of the solution, and not to be silent bystanders to what is unfolding.”