UAE pledges to provide COVID-19 vaccines for those displaced in the Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that it would continue to provide aid to both refugees and internally displaced persons from across Iraq seeking shelter at camps and informal settlements in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, focusing on a new plan to provide them with coronavirus vaccinations.

The Secretary-General of the Red Crescent Society of the UAE, Mohammad al-Falahi, discussed the initiative to vaccinate the vulnerable populations during a meeting in Erbil with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, read a statement from Barzani's office.

The delegation from the small Gulf nation "affirmed its preparedness to strengthen relations between the Kurdistan Region and the Emirates in all fields," including the vaccinations.

The Kurdistan Region's health minister announced on the previous day that over 100,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered since the arrival of the first batches in early March.

Many of the region’s residents were at first skeptical of the vaccine, but the number of vaccine-seekers has surged in recent days and weeks.

Read More: Over 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered, says Kurdish health minister

According to Tuesday's statement, Falahi also expressed pride in his government's ongoing cooperation in multiple humanitarian projects with the Erbil-based Barzani Charitable Foundation (BCF).

On his side, Prime Minister Barzani voiced "appreciation and gratitude to the UAE," in particular the Red Crescent Society, for the work it is doing in the Kurdistan Region.

Editing by John J. Catherine