Domestic

Domestic

William Tall: Azerbaijan is becoming wealthier and it becomes more attractive for migrants

02 April 2007 09:30 (UTC +04:00)

William Tall, UNHCR Representative in Azerbaijan has been interviewed by the APA.

- What are the current projects your office is working on at the moment?
- We have two primary areas of activities in Azerbaijan. We first started working in 1992. And this was a time of a big emergency in this country â€“ Karabakh. At that time our assistance was to help the government to respond the emergency they met. Our role and work in Azerbaijan has developed just as the country has developed. Today we work with government in two areas â€“ the first is to help the government develop a functioning asylum system, which means that Azerbaijan takes possibility for receiving asylum seekers and then thinking whether to give a refugee status. I think this is a very important issue, because Azerbaijan is located between Iran and Russia. And also as Azerbaijan is becoming wealthier and it becomes more and more attractive for migrants. So we work very close with the Azeri government, the government has made a significant progress in creating the system. The other thing we do is helping the government with the situation with IDPs. Our engagement with these issues has changed during years. As government now takes increasing responsibility in rehabilitation of IDPs, we focus more on advocacy and asylum issues. At the moment UNHCR is working together with Azerbaijani government on a plan of bringing back the IDPs after solving the conflict in political way. We work very close with the state refugee committee. Of course we honor that there many people that continue living in very difficult situation, but I would like to mention that the government here did a really good job in helping these people what we consider a good example. UNHCR is working works all over the world on the IDP and refugees issues. And we could see many situations when the government was itself a reason why the people were in such situation. But it is not like this here. You have a government that works on improving the conditions of these people. And the IDPs in Azerbaijan Republic can enjoy all the rights as the citizens of the country.
- What are numbers of humanitarian aid to the IPDs in Azerbaijan from UNHCR for this year?
- There is an agreement between UNHCR and Azeri government that the committee gives the poverty production to these people. The World Bank and UNO Development Program have special projects in these spheres. We are partners with Norwegian refugee Council, with their help we rehabilitated the buildings in Sumgait where the IDPs live and study. Last year this amount was 500 000 USD, and this year it is 400 000 USD. Of course, this is very little amount in compare with those hundred millions the government spends on these issues. We support governmentâ€™s project to create new districts for IDPs, and we applaud spending on this the money that comes from oil production.
- You said that you are working together with Azerbaijani government on a plan of bringing back the IDPs. Considering the experience of your organization how soon can this happen after the peace resolution is reached?
- Basically the steps we are taking now â€“ is discussing with the government on how would they approach the actual program to return people. It is important to have this basic plan before the peaceful resolution is reached. In the plan you have issues of principal and issues of program. One of the most important issues in this plan is that the people must return to their places only by their own will. This is the main principle for us and other donors. The experience of bringing people back is very different. For example, in Kosovo about 600 000 refugees were brought back in three days, but in Bosnia and Herzegovina the process is still ongoing even if 11 years passed. The main thing is to create good conditions for their return â€“ they must have good economic situation, etc.
- From which countries are the refugees that were registered in your office and how many are they?
- The number of Chechens who were registered in our office is decreasing, nowadays it is about 2500, and the number of Afghans is about 500. Except that there are refugees from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, etc. In our opinion, they can leave for their homes as soon as the situation in their countries is becoming better, and there is now pressure on them for going back. We are very grateful to the government of Azerbaijan that they support us and donâ€™t put any pressure on these people?
- Why is the Chechens number decreasing, did they go back or move to a third country?
- Most of them went back. Last year three of them were transferred to a third country. But after the 11 September events there is a security syndrome, which is an obstacle in transferring the Chechens to a third country. During the conflict in Kosovo Germany accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees, and now Germany is interested itself in returning these people back. Countries like this are not interested in accepting big groups of refugees. There is a country which says that if any man took weapon in his arms, they will never accept him. And we know that during first Chechen war every man took a weapon in his arms. Afghans are applying to Azeri government to get the refugee status. The government is looking through the applications, and we monitor this process. Sometimes we donâ€™t agree with the governmentâ€™s decision, but mostly we do agree with them. Those Afghans who got the refugee status can officially stay on the territory of Azerbaijan. But we as UNHCR think that Afghans mustnâ€™t go to their country until it is not safe for them. Some of Afghans and Chechens think that our mission is to transfer them to third countries, and we explain them that this is not so.
- How do you help â€¦.. refugees?
- From the law side there are problems for them to stay in Azerbaijan; they are not allowed to work. We first of all provide them with medical aid; we have a special clinic for that. We have a women centre, where we have some training, and mostly we give them some small cash.
- Are there any people who are looking for asylum, are there any situations like the situation with two Armenians who were kept in Ministry of National Security?
- Of course as in every category of people among these ones there are those who broke the law. If the refugee is kept in the isolator, then we are provided with a possibility to meet him. We also monitor the court process. If the refugee broke Azeri laws he will be kept in prison. There are no any cases as the one about Roman Teryan and Artur Aprosyan at the moment. At that time the government asked us to help with transferring these people to a third country and we did help.
- Will there be any humanitar aid for IDPs in the nearest future?
- The Japanese company â€œFuji Opticalâ€ which brought humanitarian aid twice will do it again this year. /APA/