BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 3
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
Turkmenistan is interested in developing joint projects with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) using digital technologies, both at the national and regional levels, Trend reports with reference to Turkmenistan’s State News Agency.
During an online meeting with an IOM representative, Turkmen officials said the country is ready to develop cooperation with the IOM, including in the field of orderly and safe labor migration.
The online meeting was held between Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov and IOM Regional Coordinator for Migration for Central Asia, Head of IOM Missions in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan Zeynal Hajiyev.
The parties discussed a plan of joint activities for the current year in such areas as countering human trafficking and assistance to migrants, as well as technical cooperation and border management.
The results of joint activities for the past 2020 were also discussed, and priority areas of cooperation for the coming period were outlined.
As earlier IOM told Trend, Turkmenistan takes substantial measures to plan and deploy assistance to migrants.
“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," IOM had said.
"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.
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, according to IOM.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 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-19. This was one of the examples of successful cooperation that provided targeted assistance to the real migrants affected by the pandemic.
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