International Humanitarian City

International Humanitarian City (IHC) is a hub for humanitarian emergency preparedness and response in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Founded in 2003 by the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, IHC is a UAE free zone.

History
Founded in 2003 as Dubai Humanitarian City, it later merged with Dubai Aid City to form IHC. It is part of the Emirati government's Mohammed bin Rashid Global Initiatives.

The formation of the hub was part of broader efforts by the UAE government, as well as the governments of other Gulf Arab states, to develop their humanitarian aid capacities as part of state branding efforts, and as a soft power tool. IHC is home to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees's global stockpile of humanitarian aid. Dubai's geographic position, relatively close to crisis zones in Asia and Africa, makes it significant to global humanitarian logistics and supply chain. The IHC is close to the UAE's Al Maktoum International Airport and Jebel Ali seaport. By the 2010s, at least eight UN agencies had established a presence in the IHC.

IHC warehouses were used during the COVID-19 pandemic as a staging area for emergency supplies. Together with Emirates and DP World, IHC forms the Vaccine Logistics Alliance, which supports the World Health Organization's (WHO) COVAX initiative and COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts. As of July 2021, 150 million doses had been distributed to 80 global destinations from IHC via Emirates.

Airlifts from the IHC, supported by the WHO, Emirates SkyCargo, and International Red Cross, were sent to Beirut after the 2020 port explosion. From July to August 2014, the UAE, supported by the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization and UNRWA, sent 21 airlifts from IHC to assist the Palestinian population of Gaza during the 2014 Gaza War.

In 2022, after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, thousands of Afghan evacuees were brought to IHC. More than 20,000 were evacuated to the site in 2021. By March 2022, approximately 10,000 Afghans remained stranded at IHC (and additional 12,000 Afghans were in Abu Dhabi and a further 2,000 at Tasameem Workers City). The UAE worked to resettle the Afghan evacuees elsewhere, but many remained for months at IHC; in March 2023, Human Rights Watch accused the UAE government of arbitrarily detaining between 2,500 and 2,700 Afghan evacuees who had not qualified for resettlement in another country.