Coronavirus: EU Humanitarian Airlift to Iraq and New Funding

Iraq is suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. Through its humanitarian partners, the EU is supporting medical facilities and health professionals in the country, as well as the implementation of public health measures in camps and places of detention, and raising awareness of how to mitigate the risks.

The last in a series of EU humanitarian airlift flights have arrived in Iraq, carrying over forty tonnes of emergency and medical supplies to bolster the humanitarian response. The flight is part of the support being provided by Team Europe to assist in the world’s most serious humanitarian crises, which are affected by transport restrictions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The EU is also providing a new EUR 35 million humanitarian airlift package to help victims of conflict and forced displacement in Iraq and to boost the response to the coronavirus.

Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management, said:

The EU continues to stand by those most in need in Iraq. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, humanitarian organisations are facing very difficult access conditions, while the needs in Iraq are increasing. This humanitarian airlift is a tangible expression of the EU’s solidarity with the most vulnerable.

EU humanitarian aid in Iraq focuses on life-saving assistance, e.g. emergency health care, shelter, access to clean water and sanitation, education and protection. EU humanitarian aid reaches some 400 000 people, many of them women and children.

Since 2015, more than EUR 490 million of humanitarian aid has been provided to the country.

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