Monday, June 19 2017 15:00

ArmInfo. In 2017, 52 people applied for accommodation  in Armenia - mostly residents of Syria, Iraq and Ukraine, mostly Armenians, but there are Arabs, Russians, Ukrainians, Petros Aghababyan,  the head of the migration department of the State  Migration Service in cases of granting accommodation  to refugees stated during the press conference.

He noted that the State budget of Armenia provides refugees with  room, food and all basic necessities, they are also provided with a  public defender. "When receiving a residence permit, people are  issued a special document, under which they have almost the same  rights as Armenian  citizens, in case of refusal this decision can be  appealed to a higher court instance," the expert explained, adding  that since 2000 , in Armenia there was a program on granting homes to  refugees and forcibly relocated, since then 4 thousand people have  applied for home in the republic, most of them Armenians.

In his turn, the head of the Department of Armenian Communities of  Near and Middle East of the Ministry of Diaspora of Armenia Levon  Antonyan noted that the majority of Armenians from Syria are not  refugees.  "In general, most of them are the citizens of Armenia,  most of the 22,000 refugees have already received citizenship," he  said, cultural and economic measures were implemented to promote the  integration of the Armenians of Syria, so in 2015 they were issued  very convenient loans that helped many Syrian Armenians open their  business here, he stressed that after the stabilization of the  situation in Aleppo, the flow of refugees decreased, and now, some  Armenians are already returning to Syria. The head of the Syrian  Coordination Center project George Barseghyan noted that for the most  part the citizens of Syria in Armenia are not satisfied with the  salary, but they have different skills that help them to get  additional incomes "The center is busy with the employment of those  refugees from Syria who have not yet found a job," Barseghian said.