A meeting was held with the Regional representative of UNHCR in Central Asia

On April 19, 2023, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Myahri Byashimova held talks with the Regional representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Central Asia Hans Friedrich Schodder.

During the meeting, it was noted that Turkmenistan, being a party to most of the fundamental international legal documents of the UNHCR system on issues of refugees and stateless persons, in fact confirms its commitment to international obligations assumed. In this context, it was emphasized that joint Annual Action Plans are being successfully implemented between the Government of Turkmenistan and the UNHCR Regional Office for Central Asia.

The Deputy Minister stated that one of the priorities of the state policy of Turkmenistan is the eradication of statelessness, which fully meets the call of the UNHCR, timed to coincide with the decade of the eradication of statelessness for 2014-2024 as part of the global campaign “#I Belong”.

It was also noted that in 2019 Turkmenistan adopted the National Action Plan to End Statelessness for 2019-2024. Government agencies, UN agencies and international organizations, as well as civil society are actively involved in the implementation of this national strategy. The result of this work was the granting of citizenship by Turkmenistan in recent years to about 30 thousand refugees and stateless persons.

The regional representative of the UNHCR, in turn, noted the active participation of Turkmenistan in the framework of the Organization and welcomed the past events for the presentation of passports.