Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The problem of refugees and IDPs has reached a critical point in the world, Head of the OSCE PA Committee on Democracy, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Questions said on June 30.

Isabel Santos told Trend news agency that the issues related to the problem of refugees and IDPs will be discussed at the 23^rd session of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Baku at her initiative.

Saying that today the world sees the highest number of refugees, she added that the number of refugees and IDPs in the world exceeds 51 million.

Santos believes that the world should arrive at a common policy for settling the problem of refugees.

This problem has different shapes and forms in each country, but basic principles should be directed at fighting this problem, she said.

Santos stressed that these principles should be based on honor, peace, development, good social position, and an open attitude toward this problem.

Good dialogue should be established among civilizations, developed, and developing countries, and tolerance should be ensured in order to put a stop to this problem, she highlighted.

Azerbaijan is also a country that suffers from the problem of refugees and IDPs, since Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan has displaced over a million Azerbaijanis from their native lands.

The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, left 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.

They are temporarily settled in more than 1,600 settlements across 62 cities and regions of Azerbaijan.

Moreover, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the emergence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijanis who had displaced from their homes as result of the brutal war were forced to live in refugee camps, tents and wagons in very difficult conditions.