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The United Nations has launched an $80 million emergency appeal to address the urgent needs of nearly two million refugees and their host communities in Iran due to the ongoing Middle East conflict.
The appeal, announced on Friday, targets immediate humanitarian assistance between March and May, as the war continues to strain already vulnerable populations.
Iran currently hosts one of the largest refugee populations globally, including millions of Afghans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
A spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, Babar Baloch, said the escalation in conflict has left refugees and host communities grappling with safety concerns, job losses, psychological distress and growing shelter needs.
He noted that the response plan is designed to support about 1.8 million Afghan refugees and others with similar status, as well as an additional one million people within host communities affected by the crisis.
He added that many Afghan refugees in Iran live within urban communities, meaning the impact of the crisis is widespread.
According to him, the agency has been receiving thousands of distress calls daily from those seeking assistance.
“With the recent escalation of conflict, refugees, other Afghans and host communities in Iran are struggling with concerns for their safety, job losses, psychological distress and urgent shelter needs.
“This will cover 1.8 million Afghan refugees and Afghans under other status living in Iran, plus also a million in their hosting communities who have also been affected.
“In Iran, most Afghan refugees, they live with the urban communities side by side, and everyone is affected.”
The humanitarian push comes as the conflict, which began on February 28 following strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran, continues to disrupt lives across the region. Tehran has since launched retaliatory attacks on targets in Israel and Gulf countries.
While the International Organization for Migration said it has not observed unusual migration outflows from Iran, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the war has already devastated critical infrastructure, including energy, water and healthcare systems.
The Red Cross cautioned that continued disregard for the rules of armed conflict could deepen civilian suffering and prolong the humanitarian crisis beyond the duration of the war.
