AZERBAIJAN CLOSES LAST OF EMERGENCY CAMPS
Yesterday AlertNet published an article on closure of last emergency camps in Azerbaijan authored by Nathalie Tagwerker.
The article describes hard condition of Internally Displaced Persons living in emergency camps, saying “but things finally changed for the better last December, when the government closed two emergency IDP camps at Sabirabad and Saatli and moved some 10,000 residents into new, vastly improved, housing in Fizuli district. This was the culmination of a government commitment launched in 2004 to close the 12 sub-standard emergency camps and move the IDPs to decent accommodation.”
“The living conditions in our new home are much better than in Sabirabad,” said a happy Aghayeva, who was forced to flee from her home region of Zangilan in south-west Azerbaijan as a result of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh. “We now have space for our whole family and are closer to our home,” she added. The south-west district of Fizuli is closer than Sabirabad to Zangilan, which is under the control of Armenians and has been renamed Kovsakan.
The Nagorno Karabakh conflict started by Armenia in the early 1990s left more than 500,000 people displaced in Azerbaijan, with around 100,000 of them housed in the 12 emergency camps at the height of the crisis. Most were set up in the south and east of the country with the help of the UN refugee agency, which helped to coordinate the international humanitarian response in Azerbaijan.
But the camps were never expected to be permanent. Conditions were harsh and they only got worse over the years. Taking this into consideration the Azerbaijan authorities in 2004 announced plans to close the emergency camps and build new settlements for the IDPs.
Later that year, five camps were closed in Bilasuvar district, followed by another four camps in the western districts of Barda and Aghjabadi in 2006. Last September, the government closed the first of two camps in Saatli. With December`s closure of the last two camps, some 11,800 IDP families, or nearly 50,000 people, have been resettled.
The closure of the IDP camps is a major achievement for the government. “The government of Azerbaijan is to be congratulated for its substantial efforts to close the tented camps and relocate IDPs to settlements with improved living conditions,” UNHCR Representative to Azerbaijan William Tall said.
But despite a fast-growing economy and political stability in recent years, the authorities still rely on the continuing help of organizations like UNHCR in assisting needy and vulnerable IDPs.
UNHCR, which has been playing a major humanitarian assistance role in Azerbaijan since 1993, is actively engaged in helping the government improve the living conditions and economic prospects for the IDPs. The refugee agency continues to be the focal point for IDPs in the country.
It manages programmes aimed at complementing the State Programme on the Improvement of Living Conditions for IDPs. These focus on advocacy, legal assistance and supporting government aspirations for returning the displaced home in the framework of a future peaceful settlement to the dispute over Nagorno Karabakh.
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