As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect refugees and host communities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is ensuring that another 20,000 refugees can access national health insurance, taking the numbers assisted with health insurance to 120,000. UNHCR covered the costs of insurance for some 100,000 vulnerable refugees last year. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the prevailing economic downturn in Iran increasing vulnerabilities amongst refugees, UNHCR has agreed to temporarily increase the number of refugees covered by the scheme. UNHCR is concerned that fewer and fewer refugees will be able to afford the cost of health insurance in 2021 and beyond, increasing the likelihood that they will not seek treatment for their urgent health needs or that they will resort to borrowing money or sending their children to work, just to be able to afford health care.

UNHCR welcomes the generous contribution of USD 1,250,000 from the Government of Japan, which will be crucial in enabling UNHCR to enhance its support of refugees over the course of 2021. In addition to supporting access to primary healthcare and education, this funding will go towards the implementation of livelihoods activities, such as the provision of technical and vocational training and support to small businesses and workshops for refugees in Iran. In turn, refugees can then positively contribute to the Iranian host community during their stay, and further utilize their new skills in their country of origin, once conditions become conductive for their safe and dignified voluntary return. Japan is one of the biggest donors to UNHCR in support of Afghan refugees.

Roya, 20, an Afghan refugee, works in a tailoring workshop in Sarvestan refugee settlement, in Iran’s southern Fars province, along with around 50 other refugee women. The workshop was established by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and later expanded by the World Food Programme (WFP). It switched its production line at the start of the pandemic to make hygiene masks, in an example of refugees’ direct involvement in the fight against COVID-19, but also of their effort to safeguard their monthly income. Since February 2020, when the first COVID-19 cases were officially recorded in Iran, Roya and her fellow refugee tailors have produced more than 10,000 masks per day, which are delivered to health and humanitarian service providers across the country.