The ceremony of delivery of passports of the citizen of Turkmenistan to persons without citizenship took place in Ashgabat, at the main office of the State Migration Service on Friday.
In recent years, Turkmenistan has become the second home for many thousands of people, owing to certain reasons and circumstances forced to leave their native places. Considering relevance of legal regulation at the national level of isues of migration, in the country the acts regulating legal status of migrants, refugees and persons without citizenship and guaranteeing them the rights and freedoms were adopted.
In partnership with UNHCR and International Organization for Migration, tens of projects and programs aimed at the practical solution of issues in the field were realized.
On September 19, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed the next decree on acceptance into citizenship of Turkmenistan of a group of persons, constantly living in the territory of the country and not having nationality. Together with it, the head of state also signed the resolution according to which the group of foreign citizens received the residence permit in Turkmenistan.
According to these documents, Turkmenistan accepted into nationality 2 thousand 657 people and issued the residence permit to 406 persons.
Those who are accepted in the Turkmen citizenship represent 21 nationalities. Most of all among them it appeared Uzbeks - 1775 people. There are also Kazakhs, Azerbaijanis, Russians and Ukrainians, Armenians, Koreans, Iranians, Turks and others.
In a gender ratio, it turned out approximately equally, but nevertheless women prevail, it is a little more of them in total. The number of not reached 18 years made 512 people.
Geographically the greatest number of the people accepted in nationality - from Lebap region, but there are inhabitants of other four regions of the country and Ashgabat. All of them constantly live for several years and work in Turkmenistan, which once accepted them for humane reasons.
18 nationalities represent 406 people who received the residence permit in Turkmenistan. They have citizenship of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Belarus and Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and others. An overwhelming part of this group is women – they are 326.
Of course, not all these people participated in today's ceremony, but its solemnity was not diminished by it and many wanted to share the feelings from the tribune. They expressed deep gratitude to the President of Turkmenistan for attention to destinies and problems of persons without citizenship, support and creation of opportunities for their worthy life.
Resident Coordinator of the UN in Turkmenistan Dmitry Shlapachenko and Human Rights and Political Affairs Adviser at the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) Armands Pupols became guests of the action.
Shlapachenko conveyed congratulations of his colleagues from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in his speech and thanked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Migration Service of Turkmenistan for long-term and productive cooperation for the benefit of refugees and persons without citizenship.
He reminded of the past recently, on September 10, international conference on reduction of statelessness in Central Asia. The forum was organized at the initiative of Turkmenistan and UNHCR for the review of progress and study of international practice on eradication of statelessness, discussion of further steps in this important direction. This it is also symbolical as this year adoption of the Convention on statelessness reduction marks its 60th anniversary.
Turkmenistan joined this convention, and the convention on the status of stateless persons, noted in turn Armands Pupols, having added that still many countries in the world, including in the region, did not join them.
Therefore, Turkmenistan is an example of how existence of political will and determination, coordinated efforts of state structures can change life of tens of thousands of people for the better, told Pupols.
"Dear citizens of Turkmenistan! Today I with great pleasure I can address you so", - he told, congratulating all who received passports. In addition, he emphasized "Obtaining the passport is not only human right for self-identification and receiving protection from the state, but also a duty to be patriots and to serve society".
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