TEHRAN – Germany has contributed €2 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in support of vulnerable Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Iran.

WFP will use the funds to provide both cash and food assistance to address the nutritional needs of 31,000 refugees living in 20 settlements across the country and for any potential new arrivals seeking refuge in Iran. 

“We’re extremely grateful to the Government and people of Germany for their steadfast support since 2014 to our operations in Iran,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Iran Negar Gerami.

“Our response capacity and deep-field presence will ensure that donor funds are used in an agile and timely manner while addressing the needs of vulnerable refugees and displaced people especially at this critical point in time.”

“Germany is one of the largest donors for WFP globally,” said German Ambassador to Iran Hans-Udo Muzel. 

“We are proud of our strong partnership with WFP to combat hunger and malnutrition worldwide. Here in Iran, WFP has provided crucial food assistance to refugees and other vulnerable persons, predominantly from Afghanistan, protecting them from insecurity and poverty.

In the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic causing a challenging humanitarian situation, Germany stands ready to support WFP in their critical mission to respond to growing needs of refugees.”

For over four decades, Iran has been hosting one of the largest and most protracted refugee situations in the world and has provided asylum to refugees, mostly from Afghanistan. The recent fast-paced turn of events in Afghanistan has the potential to create additional population movements; internally displacing families and potentially driving them to neighboring countries to seek refuge.

WFP has been providing assistance to refugees in Iran since the arrival of the first asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq in the late 1980s.

FB/MG