Azerbaijan, EU may sign readmission agreement
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan and the European Union may sign a readmission agreement, deputy chief of the State Migration Service Parviz Musayev said at the presentation of the project on supporting effective readmission management in the South Caucasus in Baku on Thursday.
The project is funded by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Azerbaijan's State Migration Service and the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan.
Musayev said Azerbaijan makes utmost efforts to observe the rights of the migrants coming to the country.
The project involves improving the knowledge and education level of the State Migration Service's staff serving migrants.
According to Musayev, talks on visa facilitation and readmission are currently underway with the EU, and four meetings on the issue have already taken place.
Visa facilitation and readmission are very important issues for both Azerbaijani and EU citizens, he noted.
"Azerbaijan has no readmission agreement with any country. I suppose that such an agreement will be concluded," Musayev added.
According to Serhan Aktoprak, officer-in-charge in the IOM Mission in Azerbaijan, the 24-month project, which will be implemented in the three South Caucasus countries, will have a total budget of 1,492,457 euros.
The project's overall objective is to contribute to the establishment and development of an effective mechanism for the management of readmission in all South Caucasus states.
The IOM will cooperate with the State Migration Service, the Foreign Ministry, Labor and Social Protection Ministry, and civil society, Aktoprak said.
The project seeks to achieve its objective by providing technical assistance to the governments to facilitate the conclusion and further implementation of readmission agreements and supporting the sustainable reintegration of returnees in their communities of origin.
Aktoprak also stressed that readmission will promote combating illegal migration.
Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Roland Kobia expressed his confidence in the project's success.
According to him, 3 percent of the world population is migrants, and the EU countries are the main target point.
There are some difficulties in this area, one of which is providing security of migrants' rights and effective management.
The EU understands the importance of the cooperation with non-EU countries, Kobia noted.
The EU realizes about 150 projects with the total budget of 285 million euros, he said.
Azerbaijan takes part in the European Neighborhood Policy and the EU considers the country a close partner, Kobia stressed.
Kobia said the EU wants to cooperate with Azerbaijan in the readmission sphere. In this respect, Azerbaijan is entering a new stage and the EU is ready to do its utmost to help the country in this area, he said.
Visa regime facilitation
In February, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev said that the negotiations on visa regime facilitation and readmission with Azerbaijan are expected to be completed by late 2013.
Azerbaijan and the EU launched official negotiations on visa facilitation in March 2012 in Baku.
An agreement on the simplification of visa entry for citizens of Azerbaijan provides for a reduction of the list of documents submitted along with the visa application and the possibility of issuing multiple entry visas with a longer validity period, thus reducing the cost of visas or even making them free for particular categories, and envisions time limits for processing an application.
The agreement on readmission will develop a mechanism for repatriation of those residing in the EU and Azerbaijan without permission.
The EU and Azerbaijan are maintaining relations under the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into force in 1999. In 2009, the EU passed a decision to sanction negotiations on the conclusion of bilateral association agreements of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia with the organization. These agreements will be a new practical instrument to replace the bilateral action plans.
Azerbaijan is also included in the EU's Eastern Partnership program, adopted at the initiative of Poland and Sweden and approved at the EU summit in Brussels in 2008. The Eastern Partnership is aimed at political and economic rapprochement of six post-Soviet states with the EU.