President Ilham Aliyev receives Director General of International Organization for Migration [UPDATE]

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received Director General of the International Organization for Migration António Vitorino.

IOM Director General António Vitorino thanked for the invitation to attend the Summit-Level Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Contact Group on the fight against COVID-19, noting that this Summit created great opportunity for conducting discussions on current issues on the international agenda.

Emphasizing that Azerbaijan and the IOM enjoy very close relations, the head of state expressed gratitude to António Vitorino for participating in the Summit-Level Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Contact Group on the fight against COVID-19 to be held in Baku. President Ilham Aliyev said that during Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement, the country put forward a number of initiatives towards the Movement’s further institutionalization.

Expressing his gratitude for the fruitful cooperation between the IOM and Azerbaijan, António Vitorino stressed the importance of the First State Program on Great Return to the liberated territories of Azerbaijan. He noted that the IOM can support this process based on its experience. He also said that since its establishment, the IOM has accumulated extensive experience in the return of internally displaced persons and refugees in different countries of the world, and is ready to share this experience with the Azerbaijani side.

The IOM Director General underlined the importance of establishing a regional training center of the IOM in Azerbaijan, saying that this center will contribute to increasing opportunities and training professional personnel both in Azerbaijan and in the countries of the region.

António Vitorino emphasized Azerbaijan's chairmanship of the Almaty Process - a consultative process on refugee protection and international migration for 2023-2024, and highlighted the importance of this platform in terms of ensuring continuous dialogue and information exchange on migration.

The sides stressed the significance of increasing the representation of Azerbaijani experts in the IOM and other UN structures.

António Vitorino pointed out that as a new donor country, Azerbaijan's financial contributions to the IOM’s budget are highly appreciated.