PACE CALLED UPON YEREVAN, TBILISI AND BAKU TO GRANT LEGAL STATUS TO REFUGEES

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.04.2006 21:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
called upon Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to find a legal status
for the refugees on the basis of international humanitarian law. “The
situation of refugees and displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia continues to be an obstacle for the development of these
countries in economic, socio-political and health terms. Efforts
to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have not as yet
produced results. Border incidents still occur, the fate of missing
persons has yet to be solved and landmines continue to cause injury and
death. There remain urgent humanitarian needs which are becoming ever
more difficult to satisfy as donor fatigue sets in. Urgent humanitarian
needs, however, must be increasingly supplemented by international
development aid to provide a future for the refugees and internally
displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. There are,
however, some positive signs that the three countries are moving
forward with the local integration of their refugees and displaced
persons, thus allowing these people to regain their dignity and
prepare for the future,” says the Report of Committee on Migration,
Refugees and Population Rapporteur Mr. Boriss Cilevics, Latvia.

The document also maintains the UN data on the number of refugees
and displaced persons in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Thus, up to
1999/2000, the number of refugees opting for Armenian citizenship was
relatively small. This changed with the enactment in 2000 of a law
on persons forcibly displaced from Azerbaijan between 1988 and 1992
who have been naturalised; the legislation grants these persons the
right to protection and assistance. As a result, over 15,000 refugees
in 2000 and over 16,000 in 2001 acquired citizenship; since 2002,
this wave of naturalisation has decreased in intensity. In Georgia,
the figures are also vague and legislation has been slow to adapt. The
number of displaced persons is put at 237,069 a figure, which shows
little variation.

According to statistics gathered during the visit to Georgia, this
figure includes 224,938 persons from Abkhazia alone, who are unevenly
distributed between the regions of Georgia, with a very strong presence
in the Tbilisi and Samegrelo (Mingrelia) areas. The number of persons
displaced from the former autonomous oblast of South Ossetia is
put at 12,131; the same remark may be made about their distribution
between the regions of Georgia, with very high densities in Tbilisi
and Kartli. In Azerbaijan the statistics provided by UNHCR (for the
end of 2004) indicate a figure of 578,545 internally displaced persons
and 8,606 refugees.