The rights and health of refugees, migrants and the stateless must be protected as the coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll on the globe, four UN agencies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

"In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, we are all vulnerable. The virus has shown that it does not discriminate -- but many refugees, those forcibly displaced, the stateless and migrants are at heightened risk," they said.

The Human Rights office, the International Organization for Migration, the UN Refugee Agency, and the World Health Organization gathered for the joint statement.

They said that states may need additional financial support to ensure refugees and migrants have adequate access to national health services and asserted that the world’s financial institutions can play a leading role in making such funds available.

The new coronavirus has arrived the North Africa and Middle East late, but the pace of its spread has rapidly increased recently.

The agencies noted that three-quarters of the world’s refugees and many migrants are hosted in developing regions where health systems are already overwhelmed and under-capacitated.