Azerbaijan turning into country of influx of migrant workers [UPDATE]

By  Trend

Azerbaijan has been gradually turning from the country of origin and transit of migrants into the country of the influx of migrant workers.

Fuad Alasgarov, head of department on work with law enforcement bodies at the Azerbaijani presidential administration, said this at the 19th meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Migration Agencies in Baku October 12.

The biggest density accounts for labor migration in Azerbaijan, Alasgarov said. “Of course, Azerbaijan’s advantageous geopolitical location, a stable internal political situation, tolerance of the country, expansion of international communications in the energy and transport sectors, impact on dynamics of migration processes.”

He added that in this regard, a lot of work was carried out to strengthen the migration policy.

"In particular, the state program was approved, the legislation was improved, institutional mechanisms were created and new information technologies were introduced,” he said.

Touching upon ASAN Visa service, he said that the service will take effect in Azerbaijan in November.  

“Most of migration documents are issued through ASAN Service centers today, which greatly facilitates the process," Alasgarov said.

“It will be possible to easily get a visa while entering Azerbaijan due to this service,” he said.

Alasgarov further said that the violation of the rights of refugees and migrants from the global flashpoints is observed in Europe today.

“The most vivid example of migration crisis today is the mass migration of refugees from Syria to Europe. They hope to find asylum in Europe, and instead face harsh and even cruel policy of European countries,” Alasgarov said. “Xenophobic and Islamophobic sentiments are growing and some politicians use these sentiments to come to power."

Alasgarov said that Azerbaijan became the first country in the CIS which faced large flows of migrants and refugees as a result of ethnic cleansing in the 1980s and the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.

“More than a million of Azerbaijani people, that is, virtually every eighth person, were forced out of their lands,” Alasgarov said.

“However, Azerbaijan coped with these difficulties and could provide refugees with normal living conditions,” he added. "Despite enormous difficulties, Azerbaijan could ensure all the basic needs of refugees and internally displaced people in the subsequent years and integrate them into society.”

Alasgarov said that however, the consequences of occupation have a negative effect as the occupied Azerbaijani territories are used for organizing illegal migration and other dangerous kinds of transnational crime.

“Azerbaijan has also been recently affected by the migration problems,” he said, adding that more and more migrants with fake documents are trying to enter the country.

First Deputy Interior Minister of Russia Alexander Gorovoy told reporters after the meeting, that the CIS migration authorities plan to sign an agreement to create a unified database of lost and invalid IDs of the CIS countries’ citizens. 

He said it is necessary to systematize the citizens’ residing procedures in the CIS countries.

“We must establish civilized relations between our countries, accepting certain migrants. We, as heads of law enforcement agencies, need to perfectly understand that all decisions based on intergovernmental and interstate agreements, should be implemented in an atmosphere of respect for another state’s law, traditions and culture,” said Gorovoy.

He said there are currently no problems in regards to migrants from Azerbaijan, and noted the high level of cooperation between migration services of Azerbaijan and Russia.

“At the moment, we do not have problems in the relations with Azerbaijan in general, including the agencies responsible for migration issues and the Azerbaijani citizens coming to Russia for work or leisure. Throughout the 25-year history of CIS, cultural and friendly relations have been established between Russia and Azerbaijan. As for today, we are satisfied with the level of interaction of our countries’ populations,” said Gorovoy.

Eighteen issues, including the station of migration in CIS member states; implementation of "Cooperation program of CIS member states for the years 2015-2019 on combatting illegal migration" in 2015; results of working group meeting on the issue of developing general data base of invalid documents of citizens of CIS member states and drafting Regulation on the mentioned data base; practice of reception of mass flow persons in emergency to the territory of CIS member states and other issues were included in the agenda of the 19th meeting of the Council.

The Council of Heads of Migration Bodies was established under the decision of Council of Heads of States dated October 5, 2007. CHMB includes authorities of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, and Russia responsible for migration issues.