The Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have sent their first-ever joint airlift of humanitarian assistance from Termez, destined for Karachi, Pakistan to help thousands affected by the recent catastrophic flooding.
With an aircraft provided by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the airlift contains over 15,000kgs of UNHCR ‘Refugee Housing Units’ to provide temporary shelter to those whose homes have been destroyed by the floods.
UNHCR and Uzbekistan continue to support the relief efforts in flood-hit parts of Pakistan, where the situation remains dire. Some 7.6 million people have been displaced by the floods, according to the latest estimates, with nearly 600,000 living in relief sites. Officials warn that it could take up to six months for flood waters to recede in the hardest-hit areas.
The relief items had been prepositioned in the UNHCR Regional Humanitarian Logistics Hub, established within the Termez Cargo Centre in 2021 with the support of the Government of Uzbekistan. The UNHCR office in Pakistan will receive and distribute the supplies arriving from Uzbekistan.
“We greatly appreciate the support of the Government of Uzbekistan to enable UNHCR to provide quick humanitarian assistance when it is needed most,” said Hans Friedrich Schodder, UNHCR Representative for Central Asia.
Over 100 trucks of core relief items have already been dispatched from the regional hub in Termez to assist the Pakistan flood response, complemented by today’s airlift, courtesy of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The UNHCR Regional Humanitarian Logistics Hub is part of UNHCR’s overall emergency preparedness and response strategy for the region. In addition to storing a contingency stockpile of core relief items, the Termez hub also serves as the main consolidation and transfer point to deliver material humanitarian assistance to UNHCR’s operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia and beyond.
In June 2022, the President of Uzbekistan granted the Termez Cargo Centre the status of ‘International Multifunctional Transport and Logistics Hub for humanitarian assistance’.
UNHCR continues to coordinate logistics as part of a plan to transport over 1.2 million relief items to local authorities in the most flood-affected areas. So far, UNHCR has delivered over 1 million life-saving items to authorities for distribution. In addition to this flight from Uzbekistan, UNHCR has carried out 22 humanitarian airlifts from Dubai.
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