| Հայ. | Eng. |
45
th Meeting of the European Committee on Migration
Migratino Management Strategy
Statement of Gagik
Yeganyan
Head of the State Department for Migration and Refugees
of the Republic of Armenia
Dear meeting participants,
It
is for the first time that I take part in the session of the European Committee
on Migration, therefore I would like to start my statement with a brief outline
of the migration field in Armenia and steps taken by the Armenian Government
towards its regulation. Then, I will draw your attention to the importance
of international cooperation and application of our joint efforts to counter
illegal migration as well as for local integration of immigrants.
Along with numerous
challenges that started to come forward from 1988 and over the post-independence
years, Armenia had to also deal with a variety of problems connected with
mass movement of population. In the initial period, such movements were produced
by forced displacement of people that occurred in every of its possible forms
- 360 thousand refugees were victims of policy of ethnic cleaning pursued
by Azerbaijan, 530 thousand ecological migrants appeared in the aftermath
of disastrous Spitak earthquake, 72 thousand internally displaced persons
fled from systematic bombings by Azerbaijan of Armenian border zones. Thereafter,
in 1992, a deplorable socio-economic situation in Armenia gave rise to an
extensive emigration flow, which, with a gradual decline, reached our days.
According to different estimations, up to one million people have left Armenia
during that period. That is why, migration issue has a primary significance
in the process of strengthening the newly independent state of Armenia. Previously,
the role of the state in this area was limited mostly to a post factum reaction
and alleviation of negative aftereffects. Since 1999, with the establishment
of the State Department for Migration and Refugees, the Armenian Government
has set itself a goal to elaborate and implement a comprehensive migration
policy – starting from improvement of border management system and registration
of migration flows, up to special treatment toward particular categories of
immigrants as stipulated in the international law on protection of human rights.
The abovementioned
task was accomplished with the adoption by the RA Government in 2000 of ‘The
Concept Paper of the State Regulation of Migration of the RA Population’.
Within past three years, based on that paper, a major progress was achieved
in formulating precise policy in certain migration areas and establishing
an appropriate legislative field to ensure its implementation, as well as
in carrying out other projected activities. To date, we have fully regulated
the entire asylum granting system which encompasses the RA Law ‘On Refugees’,
seven Governmental Decrees issued for its implementation, and relevant specialized
organizations with highly qualified personnel.
Special accommodation
centre for asylum seekers has been founded and, from this year on, funds for
its maintenance will be appropriated from the state budget. Last year, on
the basis of the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council
of Europe, the National Assembly of Armenia passed the Law ‘On Temporarily
Protected People’. As the Law sets, Armenia, guided by humanistic principles,
is prepared to provide protections to foreign nationals whose lives and freedoms
are threatened by military conflicts.
The RA Laws ‘On
Ethnic Minorities’, ‘On Exit from and Entry to the Republic of
Armenia’, ‘On Overseas Employment’, ‘On Legal Status
of Foreign Nationals’ (new edition), ‘On Tourism’ have been
drafted and will be brought under discussion in near future. In the accomplishment
of all the above undertakings, the UNHCR, IOM and other international organizations
have provided and are still providing an indispensable assistance.
Mr. Chairman,
Illegal
migration is a huge challenge for a great number of countries and only by
taking a complex approach we can succeed in our struggle against this phenomenon,
applying specific measure at every stage of its origination and development.
When illegal migration
is still in its origination stage, it is essential as a preventive measure
to conduct in the countries of origin a broad public awareness campaign to
provide information concerning rules of entry, residence and employment in
the countries of destination. Recent sociological surveys revealed that 40%
of the population in Armenia is unaware of the fact that to enter a European
country it is required to hold a visa, another 58.7% has no idea that they
will need work permit to be employed there. Such a situation creates a fertile
ground for illegal migration, especially taking into consideration the abundance
of travel and recruitment agencies or individuals that exploit people’s
ignorance to build their ‘successful’ business.
In the stage when this
phenomenon manifests itself through identification of illegal migrants in
the countries of destination, it is necessary to organize their return, and
this can be done by signing readmission agreements.
And finally, in order
to exclude recurring migration of returnees to the countries of destination,
readmission should be supplemented by reintegration programmes.
For implementation
of the said philosophy, a Migrants Service Point (MSP) was established at
the State Department for Migration and Refugees of Armenia around a year ago.
This was done within the framework of the IOM’s Cluster Initiative.
An eight-hour hot line is being operated by the MSP. Additionally, MSP has
held a series of seminars for journalists and employment agencies; at the
seminars presentations were made by officials of foreign Embassies in Yerevan.
The MSP visitors receive trustworthy information on the matters of their concern.
Leaflets and posters with straightforward information were published and put
into circulation in thousands of copies. Among other accomplishments are production
of series of TV and radio programmes and publication of four issues of ‘Overseas
Labor Migration’ quarterly bulletin.
In 2002, throughout
the period of MSP functioning, the number of asylum applications lodged by
Armenian nationals in 28 developed countries had been steadily reducing from
quarter to quarter. So, in the second quarter of 2002, the number of asylum
applications was 11% less than in the first quarter, in the third quarter
it was 24% less in comparison with the same period and in the fourth quarter
– 38% less. It should be added, that last year the number of asylum
seekers from Armenia dropped in around 500 as compared to 2000, whereas for
other countries of the region this number increased. These facts evidence
the effectiveness of our efforts.
Nevertheless, I regret
to say that continuation of the MSP activities, which have such a critical
meaning, is questionable yet. Therefore I will be grateful if anybody of the
meeting participants responds to our appeal for assistance in this. A material
covering the MSP activities is available at the secretariat.
Armenia is actively
involved in a negotiation process with different countries aimed at concluding
intergovernmental agreements on readmission of illegal migrants. Talks are
now underway with the Benelux countries, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine,
while with the Swiss Confederation and Danish Kingdom they are already over
and the agreements will be signed soon. I would like to take this opportunity
to declare that, in compliance with the commitments that Armenia assumed with
its accession to the Council of Europe, we are always ready to enter into
negotiations with the countries concerned.
As it was mentioned
above, to prevent recurring migration of returned illegal migrants, it is
highly advisable to implment reintegration programmes and I should state with
great satisfaction that in this respect we have already reached a consensus
with the Swiss Federal Government. The Swiss party will assist to carry out
a pilot programme on reintegration of 50 Armenians repatriated from Switzerland.
We are very much interested in establishing similar cooperation with other
countries as well.
We have worked out
detailed reintegration programmes, which the meeting participants can obtain
at the secretariat.
Dear Mr. Chairman,
Among the migration-related problems, the issue of people forcibly displaced from Azerbaijan is particularly urgent for Armenia, as these people represent 10% of the country population. This index is the highest in the CIS countries, by the way. Starting the middle 90s, when it has become apparent that voluntary return of this people to the previous residence is unrealistic due to security threats, our Government has adopted a policy of their integration. Since then, it has become legally fixed that refugees enjoy the same social and economic rights as local residents and can acquire citizenship following quite a simplified procedure. Nevertheless, the integration process proceeded rather slowly, hampered mainly by two reasons:
1. Refugees
were convinced that upon naturalization they will lose certain privileges,
in other words, would become more unprotected.
2. The majority of refugees lives in extremely hard socio-economic
conditions (unemployment rate among refugees 2.4 times exceeds that of local
residents, the access to social services is inadequate etc.), that is why
they consider themselves to be ignored by the state and the international
community and live in social isolation.
This accounts for the
fact that, by 1999, within ten years, the number of naturalized refugees made
just 6,000.
With the establishment
of our Department the situation has dramatically changed. In cooperation with
the UNHCR, we have conducted an extensive information campaign aimed at making
people aware of differences and advantages of refugee and citizen statuses.
The National Assembly passed four new laws for promoting the process of naturalization,
solution of refugees’ social and economic problems was put on programme
basis. In the outcome, within past three years, the number of naturalized
refugees has radically increased (around ten times more), reaching 60,000.
Actually we have managed to bring about a fundamental upturn in an enormous
task of local integration of refugees, which had large dimensions not only
for Armenia but even on global scale. What we have to do today is to preserve
and further advance our achievements. To this end, it is necessary to ensure
extension of programmes on improvement of social and living conditions of
refugees. As it is proved in practice, in those regions where housings for
refugees are under construction, they largely apply for the RA citizenship.
Assistance that we receive from the Norwegian Refugee Council and UNHCR is
really crucial for us in this respect.
It would have been
much desirable that other European structures and organizations that are dealing
with refugee-related issues in other countries could also apply their efforts
in assisting Armenia to effect this large-scale programme of refugee integration.
Especially because, as I have already mentioned, all the prerequisites for
its successful accomplishment have been created both in legal and institutional
terms.
Dear Mr. Chairman,
Finishing my statement, I would like to once again emphasize that my country is prepared to cooperate for regulation of migration so that instead of alienating and conflict generating factor it turned into a connecting bridge between nations.
Thank you for your kind attention.
GAGIK
YEGANYAN
Head of the State Department
for Migration and
Refugees of the Republic
of Armenia
