Gov’t to spend over $1.1bn for IDPs

Approximately one billion manats ($1.19 billion) will be spent for internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of the supplements made to the program on improving living standards of refugees and IDPs, and increasing employment rate, an official said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued a decree on Wednesday on making supplements to the program.

Chairman of the State Committee on Work with Refugees and Displaced Persons, Ali Hasanov, said that 700 million manats were spent over the past period to solve the problems of refugees and IDPs, with 370 million manats of the sum allocated from the state budget, while the rest from the State Oil Fund (SOFAZ).

The committee head said that 20,000 jobs would be opened for displaced persons. He said that 280,000 out of 300,000 displaced persons able to work had been provided with jobs, 30-40% of which are seasonable, while the rest – permanent.

Hasanov said that 49 settlements and over 15,000 apartments were constructed for IDPs over the past few years, noting that approximately 70,000 people have been settled in new settlements.

“The abolishment of tent camps and movement of displaced persons, who live in three tent camps and railway carriages, to new settlements must be completed by the end of this year,” he said.

Hasanov said that the IDPs settled in military units and secondary schools would be moved to new settlements as well.*