Perspectives of cooperation discussed between State Migration Service and International Center for Migration Policy Development 

Chief of the State Migration Service (SMS) of the Republic of Azerbaijan, II rank state migration service counselor Firudin Nabiyev met with Michael Spindelegger, Director General of International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) headquarters of which is located in Vienna within the framework of the visit to Austria.

At the meeting bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the organization was broadly discussed. Steps taken for further strengthening and development of friendly relations and cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and ICMPD were mentioned.

Service chief talked about achievements in the sphere of migration management and migration processes regulation in Azerbaijan as a logical result of successful policy carried out under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. He touched upon issues arising from Cooperation Agreement signed between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and ICMPD on June 27, 2006 in Baku taking into account the necessity of undertaking additional measures on migration, repatriation, asylum, visa policy and border control. Recalling “New-York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants” adopted on September 19, 2016 F.Nabiyev shared his views on issues awaiting urgent solution which was raised during his speech at the panel on “Building from the ground up: promoting a whole-of-society approach to good migration governance” within the framework of the event on “Strengthening international cooperation on and governance of migration towards the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration in 2018” held in New-York in April of the current year.

Speaking about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a result of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan F.Nabiyev mentioned with regret that 4 resolutions adopted by UN Security Council have not been fulfilled yet, more than one million people lead refugee and IDPs life since the end of 80’s and the beginning of 90’s and emphasized that international community should increase efforts for peaceful resolution of this conflict which is a serious threat to stability in the region.

Activities carried out and projects implemented after the implementation of the projects stemming from Joint Declaration was entrusted to ICMPD by the European Union with the consent of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2015 were analyzed at the meeting which was held in the atmosphere of mutual opinion exchange. Attention was drawn to measures taken as a support to strengthening capacity of the Government of Azerbaijan in the field of migration monitoring, analysis and forecast and implementation migration policy. The significance of MOBILAZE project which serves to strengthening management in the field of labour migration, document security, national asylum policy and implementation of sustainable reintegration of returned citizens, as well as increasing public awareness on Mobility between EU and Azerbaijan were discussed.

It should be noted that within the framework of ICMPD “Support to Implementation of Mobility Partnership with Azerbaijan” (MOBILAZE) project between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the European Union was drafted and agreement for its implementation was signed between EU and ICMPD on December 31, 2015. The implementation of the 36 months’ project was launched on January 15, 2016. 9 agencies from 7 EU Member States (the Republic of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Poland, and the Republic of Slovakia) are involved in the project. From March 2016 Baku Office of the project started its activity.

At the meetings comprehensive exchange of opinion was carried out on other topics of mutual interest.