Ombudsman received the Chief of IOM Mission to Azerbaijan

Elmira Suleymanova, the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan received Mr.Vladimir Gjorgjiev, new Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to Azerbaijan.

The purpose of the meeting was to indentify the problems of migrants in the field of human rights protection, to find solutions, to exchange views and information on the application of strategic priorities and innovations within the framework of mutual cooperation between the IOM and the Ombudsman Office, as well as on the maintenance of the relevant cooperation.  

E.Suleymanova congratulated the guest on the occasion of his appointment as the Chief of Mission and stated that a range of activities are carried out with regard to regulation of continuous migrant flow as a result of the reforms conducted in our country, also additions and amendments made to the legislation on the protection of migrants’ rights and freedoms, several measures undertaken in the institutional sphere. The Commissioner particularly stressed upon the activities carried out by the State Migration Service through application of new approaches in the field of regulation and management of migration processes in recent period, noted the positive outcomes, also attaining more effective implementation of the rights of migrants thanks to the close cooperation with this authority.

She also emphasized the necessity of determination of existing problems and needs of those persons, provision of free legal advice to paperless migrants or those with invalid documentation for the elimination of difficulties faced by them, development of national legislation and international documents stipulating legal status of those persons, as well as specialized modules on promotion of our culture, language, religion.

The projects implemented within the framework of cooperation with the IOM, like “Strengthening the potentials of migration and border administration in Azerbaijan”, “Increasing the potentials on combating human trafficking in Azerbaijan” were highlighted as well.

At the same time, information was given to the guest on the activities carried out by the Ombudsman Office for the protection of migrants’ rights, recent years’ improvement on the management mechanism of migration processes in our country. Fighting the discrimination against persons from this group and individual approach towards them encompasses one of the priority directions in the Commissioner’s activity.

It was underlined that four regional centers of the Ombudsman and her specialized adviser, the Unit on the Protection of the Rights of Refugees, IDPs and Migrants are operating in this field. In the aforementioned Unit, complaints of stateless persons, foreigners, also persons seeking asylum in our country are investigated; in addition to that the issue of protecting the rights of our citizens living abroad are always kept in the focus by the Commissioner.

The Commissioner has proposed to expand joint awareness-raising events towards this direction by involving state bodies, civil society representatives and local communities in the capital and regions, also in the border checkpoints, drafting joint legal publications and posters in order to deliver the news on migration happening in the country and the world to the foreigners and stateless persons, as well as the citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to hold social events for the persons in detention centers for illegal migrants to have their leisure time efficiently spent.

Within the framework of the meeting, the cooperation directions for implementation of the Migration Management Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023, National Migration Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2024, also the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration within the context of human rights were discussed.

V.Gjorgjiev highly appreciated the activity and expressed his gratitude to the Commissioner for the useful exchange of views and recommendations. He noted the further interest in the mutual cooperation with the Ombudsman Institution and consideration of the proposals sounded in the meeting.

He thanked the Commissioner for the sincere welcome, efficient proposals.