TEHRAN –The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have signed a letter of understanding (LOU) to support the Iranian government’s response to the growing needs of refugees.

Iran is one of the world’s largest hosting countries with millions of refugees welcomed over four decades.

Both UN agencies appreciate the generosity and support provided by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran such as access to education and primary healthcare for all children in the country including refugee children, UNICEF website announced in a press release on February 12.

According to the UNICEF website, the signed LOU clarifies roles and responsibilities, enhances operational effectiveness – through a biannual Action Plan – and optimizes resources of each agency to the benefit of vulnerable children, including refugees, in certain agreed areas.

“Today we take another step forward in strengthening our collaboration to support the Islamic Republic of Iran’s inclusive refugee policies,” UNICEF website quoted Yumiko Takashima, UNHCR Representative in Iran, in welcoming the signing of the LOU.

“This will help maintain essential services provided through the national system, allowing access to all children without discrimination,” he added.

The cooperation will focus on joint advocacy in a variety of areas such as child protection, education, health, and nutrition, as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors.

"We are here today to fortify the collaboration between our agencies, uniting our efforts to ensure that all refugee and displaced children and families, along with their host communities, can consistently access social services. Our shared objective is to uphold the principle of 'leaving no one behind,' as we firmly believe that every child, regardless of their nationality or status, has a right to life with dignity and deserves an equal opportunity to realize their full potential," affirmed the UNICEF Representative, Robin Nandy.

Moreover, the cooperation will help leverage UNHCR and UNICEF’s complementary strengths and scale up their joint efforts to provide inclusive protection and assistance to the most vulnerable forcibly displaced populations in Iran.

Iran, UNICEF stress drafting MOU on refugees

Ruhollah Qaderi, the National Organization for Migration’s director for international affairs, and Nandy, the representative of the UNICEF in Iran, in a meeting on December 11, 2023, emphasized the need for drafting a memorandum of understanding on refugees.

Referring to the enhanced cooperation between UNICEF and the National Organization for Migration, Qaderi said, "We are talking about refugees as they are imposing high costs on the government and the people of Iran,” IRNA reported.

Despite Iran’s generous hosting of the refugees, who are mainly Afghans, the international community has failed to support the country. They have paid for less than one percent of the costs of hosting refugees, which is not acceptable at all, Qaderi explained.

Nandy, for his part, appreciated Iran for supporting refugees residing in the country.

Confirming that the amount of foreign aid is not proportionate to hosting costs and highlighting the need to depoliticize humanitarian issues, particularly children in a polarized world, Nandy said UNICEF's support will be tailored to the needs of Iran.

UNHCR is committed to introducing Iran’s services

In October 2023, Takashima during a trip to the city of Taibad, northeastern Khorasan Razavi province, said the Organization is committed to introducing the services provided by Iran to immigrants and refugees to the world.

The health, medical, cultural, educational, and other services provided by the officials of Iran to immigrants and refugees are exceptional and unique, she said.

“I will present this service model to international organizations, of course, we need Iran's support to provide services with positive and real references.”

For sure that’s a heavy burden on the shoulders of the government of Iran and we need the cooperation and support of international organizations to provide more services to immigrants and refugees here, she added.

MT/MG