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International Migrants Day celebrated in Baku
On December 18 an event dedicated to the International Migrants Day and the closing ceremony of the project on "Consolidation of Migration and Border Management Capacities in Azerbaijan" was held within the framework of joint cooperation of the State Migration Service, Ombudsperson’s Office, the IOM and the UN Representations in Azerbaijan.
Speaking at the event, Chief of the State Migration Service, Vusal Huseynov stated that on December 18, 1990 the UN General Assembly adopted the “International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families” and the day has been celebrated worldwide as the International Migrants Day every year since 2000. In total, more than 258 million international migrants live in the world, which means that one out of every 30 people in the world is a migrant.
Today, migration provides many opportunities for states, societies and migrants, along with a number of challenges, such as integration, displacement, safe migration and border management. Regulation of migration processes, as well as protecting the rights of migrants, including refugees is one of the most pressing problems for many countries in the modern world. Regulation of migration processes in accordance with the international norms and the national legislation, as well as protection of the rights of migrants, including migrant workers and their family members is one of the priorities for the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The Service chief spoke about the effective cooperation with the IOM since the establishment of the State Migration Service in the direction of the strengthening the capacity of the Service, supporting the implementation of migration management with advanced and innovative methods and strengthening the mechanism for protection of migrants’ rights. The Service chief emphasized that the implemented and ongoing projects, as well as the results achieved within these projects indicate that the existing cooperation with the IOM is at the high level.
Touching upon to the advantages of the mobile application developed by the State Migration Service, the Service chief emphasized that “MIGAZ” is a more comfortable, flexible and effective platform for foreigners and stateless persons in the area of registration and raising public awareness. Vusal Huseynov informed the event participants about the 1 month’s public awareness campaign to be carried out by the SMS.
In the end the chief of the State Migration Service highly appreciated the project and underlined that the Service will spare no effort for consolidation and further development of the results. Expressing gratitude to everyone participating in the event, especially to the donors, beneficiaries of the project and the International Organization for Migration, which has been closely involved in its successful implementation, V. Huseynov wished success in future projects.
The Ombudsperson Elmira Suleymanova, UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Ghulam Isaczai and Acting head of the representation of IOM in Azerbaijan Meltem Ersan and others delivered a speech mentioning the importance of the International Migrants Day in terms of drawing the society’s attention to the problems of migrants and raising public awareness.
It was noted that as a result of the work carried out in the field of migration in our country during the past period, measures on regulation of migration processes on the basis of unified and flexible procedures, simplification of documentation, ensuring foreigners' convenience have been expanded.
It was highlighted that the protection of migrants’ and human rights is a priority for Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has established a migration management model which can be an example for all countries of the world in terms of good attitude towards migrants and refugees.
In the end, a short film "Alien" was demonstrated and presentations were made on the project on "Consolidation of Migration and Border Management Capacities in Azerbaijan".
