Over the past 15 years, 26 thousand refugees and stateless persons have become citizens of Turkmenistan, according to the Internet edition CentralAsia.news.
The government is progressively taking measures to eliminate and prevent statelessness, helping stateless persons, and introducing mechanisms to prevent the risks of statelessness. This process is being implemented within the framework of the national program and cooperation with the UN.
Recall that the UNHCR office was opened in Ashgabat in 1995, and on March 4, 1998, an agreement on cooperation was signed between the UNHCR and the government of Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan is the only Central Asian country that has acceded to the UN international conventions on the problems of refugees and stateless persons. The country adopted the Law on Refugees back in 1997, on March 2, 1998 it joined the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 and the New York Protocol, which in 1967 supplemented the concept of refugee status. Also, Turkmenistan has adopted both the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961.
In July 2020, Turkmenistan's new law on universal birth registration and the prevention of statelessness among children helped prevent child statelessness by ensuring birth registration of all children born in the country, including children whose parents are undocumented. Representatives of the UNHCR assessed the law positively.
At the end of last year, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a decree on the adoption of 2580 citizenship. Among them are representatives of 19 nationalities.
Note that Turkmenistan is determined, by 2024, to eradicate statelessness in the country. This will be done within the framework of the relevant national program for 2018-2024 and cooperation with UNHCR through the #IBelong program.
