ASHGABAT: Turkmenistan takes substantial measures to plan and deploy assistance to migrants, International Organization for Migration (IOM) told media.
“countering risks of irregular migration and combatting trafficking in persons is the subject of the two NAPs on Countertrafficking. One of them was successfully implemented and the second one is in the progress. These plans focus on the creation of Turkmenistan the national referral and assistance mechanisms to support the victims of human trafficking. Importantly, under the NAPs the parties cooperated to provide direct material and reintegration assistance to victims of trafficking and ensure preventive measures conducting information campaigns on the risks of irregular migration around the country and supporting operation two counter-trafficking/migration hotlines,” said IOM. Besides that, under these plans, the country implemented several legal steps to criminalize trafficking in persons, added IOM.
“Recently Turkmenistan adopted Socio-Economic Response Plan to the Acute Disease Pandemic that includes migrants as one of the vulnerable groups that are susceptible to the consequences of the pandemic and resulting economic downturn.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic and following the discontinuation of the commercial air flights, Turkmenistan organized a series of return flights to assist its stranded population to get back home. Special quarantine zones for the returnees were organized that aimed at the prevention of spreading the disease inside the country, said the organization. IOM said that last year IOM and MFA cooperated to provide monetary assistance to a number of Turkmenistan’s students that could not return home as the result of COVID. This was one of the examples of successful cooperation that provided targeted assistance to the real migrants affected by the pandemic.
On 4 March 1998, the Government of Turkmenistan and UNHCR signed the Cooperation Agreement. The Agreement entitles UNHCR to pursue its primary purpose of safeguarding the rights and well-being of refugees and asylum-seekers and assisting refugees in finding durable solutions. Currently refugee status determination (RSD) is carried out by UNHCR, according to UNHCR’s Statute and the 1951 UN Convention Relating to status of refugees and its 1967 New York Protocol.
Turkmenistan is the only country in Central Asia which acceded to the Stateless Conventions. In January 2019, the government adopted a National Action Plan (NAP) to End Statelessness (2018-2024) aiming at resolving the existing statelessness cases and putting in place adequate safeguards for stateless prevention, including the establishment of the stateless status determination procedures. –PNP
