Refugees in NKR tell about housing problems

On June 20, on the occasion of World Refugee Day, in Stepanakert, more than 40 people gathered for a roundtable "Refugees in the NKR: Status and Main Problems", organized by the NGO "Union of Armenian Refugees from Azerbaijan" in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

"Having been exposed to pogroms and deportations, having left all the property, accumulated by more than one generation, in Azerbaijan, we are still out of sight of international institutions. References to the non-recognition of the Republic of Artsakh [the NKR] causes bewilderment not only among the refugees themselves, but also in the whole reasonable community," says the document adopted at the end of the roundtable.

This appeal is primarily addressed to the UN High Commissariat for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as to all international human rights organizations, Saro Saryan, refugee from Baku and the chairman of the NKR's Union of Armenian Refugees from Azerbaijan, explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The roundtable discussed refugees' social problems, in particular, the housing issue. In his speech, Mr Saryan noted that since 1988, when oppressions of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan began, 120,000 refugees arrived in the NKR. Today, for more than 40% of refugees, the housing problem remains unresolved – many have no housing, or it is dilapidated or in need of repairs.

Instead of providing free housing, authorities should offer privileges for buying it and create conditions for refugees to earn stable incomes, the participants in the roundtable in Stepanakert have stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 22, 2019 at 05:28 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.