The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced in a press release on Friday a new partnership with the Ministry of Health to offer primary governmental health services for African, Yemeni, and Iraqi refugees living in Egypt.

This was agreed on in a meeting on Wednesday between the UNHCR and the Minister of Health Ahmed Emad El-Din.

The UNHCR will provide African, Yemeni, and Iraqi refugee communities with health services, after it had provided only registered Syrian refugees with the service.

The health services will be granted to refugees at government-run hospitals for a fraction of the cost which they must still pay. Services include maternal and childhood care services, vaccinations, family medicine services, curative and preventive care, as well as birth registration services, according to the press release.

Similarly in October, Emad El-Din signed a memorandum of understating with the UNHCR that made medical care a priority for asylum seekers in Egypt and those who are registered at the UN agency. The government has allocated $1.1m for this.