GENEVA: The UN refugee agency on Friday said the West Asia war had sent its freight rates soaring, hitting the delivery of aid to refugees in the wider region and Africa.
Shipping rates from UNHCR’s three main source countries for emergency supplies — India, Pakistan and China — have shot up by nearly 18 percent, the agency said, while delivery delays and port congestion are also having an impact.
Every extra dollar spent on fuel and higher war-risk shipping insurance premiums is a dollar less that can be spent in the field, UNHCR added.
“The Middle East crisis has generated far-reaching ripple effects well beyond the region, with growing consequences for global humanitarian supply chains and the delivery of aid,” spokeswoman Carlotta Wolf told a press conference in Geneva.
While freight rates have surged, the capacity of UNHCR’s usual transport providers to respond to its requests has dropped from 97 percent at the start of the year to 77 percent.
The agency has rerouted sea cargo via Jordan’s Aqaba Red Sea port, and has switched to land corridors including truck routes from Dubai across the Arabian peninsula and Turkey.
“For some shipments, costs have more than doubled, such as transport costs for relief items from UNHCR’s global stockpiles in Dubai to our Sudan and Chad operations, which have increased from around $927,000 to $1.87 million,” said Wolf.
The Middle East war began on February 28 with a barrage of US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Tehran retaliated by attacking infrastructure across the Gulf and putting a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
The restrictions on traffic through the strait has cut off vast amounts of oil, gas and fertiliser from the world economy, while the United States has imposed a counterblockade on Iranian ports.