Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The problems of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) were the main topic of a meeting between Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs, Ali Hasanov and Ukrainian Deputy Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, George Tuka.

Speaking at the meeting in Baku, Tuka said that Ukraine is interested in Azerbaijan`s experience in tackling social and housing problems of refugees.

The Ukrainian deputy minister hailed Azerbaijani government’s efforts to improve social conditions and employment opportunities of more than one million refugees and IDPs.

In turn, Hasanov gave an insight into the government’s work to provide better social and housing conditions for Azerbaijani refugees. He pointed out the existence of the international standard legislative base for tackling social and housing problems of refugees and IDPs in Azerbaijan.

Due to the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by Armenia and the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons hit more than 1.2 million.

With a population of over 9.8 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.

With the growing economic and political situation of the country, the state pays much attention to the most difficult problems once concerning the refugees and IDPs. The state improves the living conditions of refugees and IDPs and it has adopted relevant state programs and legislative acts.

Azerbaijan spent over 6 billion manats ($3.5 billion) over the past years for solution of problems of refugees IDPs.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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