Azerbaijan preparing refugee repatriation bill

Azerbaijan is preparing a bill ‘On Repatriation of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons’, said Hadi Rajabli, chairman of Azerbaijani parliament’s labour and social affairs committee.

Rajabli was addressing a meeting of the committee in Baku Jan. 28.

Azerbaijan has over one million refugees and IDPs, who were forced to leave their motherlands as a result of the Armenian aggression.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Further addressing the event, Rajabli said the bills ‘On the Rights of People with Disabilities’ and ‘On Tourism’ will be reviewed during the parliament’s spring session.

He said the first bill is a modified version of the law ‘On Prevention of Disability’, which was passed earlier.

“This law has partially lost its relevance,” he said. “Therefore, it was necessary to improve it.”

Rajabli also said a number of changes are planned to be made in Azerbaijan’s Labour Code.

/By Trend/