UN official: Azerbaijan creates safe environment for over 1,700 refugees, asylum seekers

UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Vladanka Andreeva has said that the country has created a safe environment for over 1,700 refugees and asylum seekers who came from different parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Syria.

Unfortunately, neither last year nor this year saw a decline in the number of refugees in the world. Due to the Russian-Ukrainian war and the situation in Sudan, the number of refugees in the world by May of 2023 exceeded 110 million people, she said at the event dedicated to World Refugee Day, APA reports.

Addressing the event, UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Azerbaijan Bik Lum said that UNHCR is ready to create a legal framework for refugee issues together with the Azerbaijani government.

“Today, the majority of refugees in Azerbaijan still do not have the necessary legal status. For example, it is impossible to open a bank account and get a driver’s license,” she underlined, according to APA.

"We are also ready to discuss support for an additional law on fighting, creating a fair and effective asylum system," she said.

In the same vein, the head of the Azerbaijani State Migration Service (SMS) Vusal Huseynov said that currently, the number of refugees worldwide exceeds 110 million people, Report informs .

According to him, the number of refugees in the world has increased by almost 30 million people in the past three years.

"If in 2020 the number of refugees was 80 million people, now the figure exceeds 110 million, and although it was predicted that the number of refugees in the world would reach 100 million by 2023, at present this figure exceeds 110 million," he stressed.

Huseynov said conflicts, xenophobia and other factors have increased the number of refugees in the world.