Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Aug.16 /Trend H.Hasanov/
A meeting with the regional representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and internally displaced persons (UNHCR) in Central Asia Saber Azam, was held in the Parliament of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen government said.
Issues of further expansion of the positive cooperation between Turkmenistan and the authoritative structural unit of the United Nations in view of the key aspects of public policy of the country in the humanitarian sphere were discussed during the meeting.
It was stressed during the meeting that the recent ratification of new legal documents by the Parliament of Turkmenistan, including the resolution 'On accession to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness', is another clear demonstration of the commitment of the Turkmen government to increasing international cooperation and consolidated approach in addressing the global challenges of our time.
An international high level forum on refugees was held with the participation of UNHCR in Ashgabat this year. More than 3000 people received Turkmen citizenship in accordance with the decree signed by President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov in 2011.
According to official data there are more than 40,000 stateless citizens in Central Asia.
UN believes that another thousand such people should be identified and documented. These findings were published in the course of an international conference, also organised by the UNHCR in December 2009 in Ashgabat.