The total of 5-6 thousand of Armenian citizens claimed asylum in the European Union countries for the last two years, chairperson of the Migration Service under Territorial
Administration Ministry, Irina Davtyan, said when presenting a programme "Prevention of illegal migration to Belgium through informing of Armenian society", 8 May.
She said that in the 90-s, 8-9 thousand of Armenian citizens used to claim asylum in European countries, but this indicator gradually reduced. "If in the 90-s the main reasons of migration were the USSR split, the Karabakh war and the earthquake, at present, unemployment, low salary and other phenomena in the society are the reasons of emigration", - she said. She also added that in 2012 only 100 Armenian citizens out of 3 thousand that applied for asylum, got it. "Earlier, stemming from humanism, European countries were receiving applications for asylum for treatment. However, today the rules changed and only those applications are satisfied, in which
a disease is fixed which cannot be treated in the country where an applicant has come from", - she said and added that in the European countries there is a list of diseases which are not treated in other countries.
For his part, the head of International Organization for Mankind Development, Armen Galstyan, said that many Armenians think that if they emigrate to a European country, they can have free treatment and later get citizenship. "However, this is wrong. There is no problem if one has got money and wants to be treated in Europe and come
back. But the European taxpayer does not want and is not obliged to pay for the treatment of a citizen from another country", - he said.