TEHRAN – Some 100,000 vulnerable refugees residing in Iran are covered by social insurance in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21), Davood Hajghasem Ali, an official with Health Insurance Organization has said.

Regarding the provision of services to vulnerable citizens over the last year, he said “With the agreement signed between the Health Insurance Organization and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Iran in March, about 100,000 vulnerable citizens were covered by insurance services.”

Referring to the conditions for non-vulnerable refugees to use health insurance services, he noted that for non-vulnerable nationals, as in previous years, in the form of a list received from the Ministry of the Interior, are covered by insurance with premiums paid by the head of the household.

The insurance premiums for vulnerable citizens are paid by the High Commissioner for Refugees in Iran, of whom 2,000 are suffering from rare diseases, he stated, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

He added that the coverage of vulnerable citizens has increased by 8,000 compared to last year.

Medicine coverage and insurance services of foreign nationals in the form of a commission contract are similar to that of Iranian insured persons with the same deductibles, he explained.

For coronavirus patients, foreign nationals like Iranians use insurance services, he further concluded.

Iran spends about 20 trillion rials (nearly $477 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) every year on the education of foreign national students residing in the country, head of the international affairs department of the Ministry of Education Gholamreza Karimi said in March.

Over 474,000 Afghan national children are receiving education in Iran completely free of charge, he added.

Out of 970,000 foreigners (men and women) in working-age of 15 to 60 years, some 36,000 are under social insurance coverage in the country, head of Social Security Organization’s department for foreign nationals Ahmad Reza Khazaei said in July 2018.

Iran is host to one of the largest and most protracted refugee populations worldwide.

According to UNHCR, more than 3 million Afghans, including registered refugees, passport holders, and undocumented, reside in Iran.

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