Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) greatly values its cooperation with the government of Azerbaijan.

IOM Regional Director for the South and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia Argentina Szabados made the remark as she met with the country`s Deputy Premier, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs, Ali Hasanov, Azertac reported.

She praised Azerbaijan`s management of migration processes, saying this practice could serve as a role model for other countries.

Szabados also applauded tolerance in Azerbaijan as well as transparent working conditions created in the country for foreign organizations, noting the necessity of expanding cooperation between Azerbaijan and the IOM.

Hasanov, for his part, recalled National Leader Heydar Aliyev’s and President Ilham Aliyev’s meetings with the IOM Director-Generals at various times. He said these meetings discussed ways of deepening cooperation between the country and the organization.

The deputy premier hailed the work of the IOM Baku office, particularly humanitarian and development projects.

Azerbaijan is open for new projects of the IOM, he emphasized.

“After the restoration of independence we used professional experience and expertise of the IOM to build a legal framework for solving the problem of migration which was new for us at that time. Today Azerbaijan has joined international conventions, improved its national legislation to international standards and built a robust legal framework in this sphere.,” Hasanov said adding that the government of Azerbaijan is interested in continuing and developing cooperation with the IOM.

The official emphasized that Azerbaijan was an attractive destination for migrants due to its economic advancements and the government`s effective policy to create new jobs and improve the living standard of refugees and IDPs.

“Speedy development of the country has led to an increase in the number of migrants visiting Azerbaijan, so we still need to continue cooperation within the IOM in priority areas,” he said.

Szabados hailed Azerbaijan`s great achievements despite the occupation of a fifth of its territory and the existence of more than one million refugees and IDPs.

She lauded the conditions created for refugees and IDPs in Azerbaijan thanks to efforts of President Aliyev. She expressed hope that her visit to Azerbaijan would contribute to cooperation between the country and the organization.

With a population of over 9.6 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.

Due to the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia and the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons hit more than 1.2 million.

Over 20 years, Azerbaijan has allocated $ 6 billion to resolve social problems of refugees and IDPs, as well as 250,000 refugees and IDPs were provided with apartments in 93 modern towns for temporary dwelling, according to the official.

The level of poverty among them declined from 75 percent to 12 percent. Azerbaijan’s achievements in the resolution of problems of internally displaced persons were hailed by the international organizations and countries.

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