09:18, 21 December, 2021

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia is launching a Center for Integration of Repatriates to make the government support for repatriates more coordinated and broader.

“Repatriation is a very important strategic point for the government,” the head of the program in charge of setting up the center Margarita Baghdasaryan told ARMENPRESS.

“Now, when moving to Armenia repatriates face a number of issues relating to various issues, such as paperwork and general integration. Our office is dealing with these issues now as well. We have a dedicated department working with repatriates every day. We realized that this work ought to be done more coordinated and on a broader scale and we came up with the idea of creating the Center for Integration of Repatriates, the mission of which will include encouraging repatriation and helping the persons going through this process to receive support from the very beginning to the completion,” Baghdasaryan said.

Being a repatriate herself, Margarita Baghdasaryan returned to Armenia from the United States. She says she didn’t face any major issues because she was born in Armenia and was familiar with the environment, the traditions and public trends. But despite this, she experienced certain difficulties.

“It was difficult for me too, I had to understand how the healthcare system was working, there were issues with paperwork such as stamps in the passport or bureaucratic issues. Imagine the difficulties facing the repatriates who’ve never lived in Armenia before, who don’t have any friends or family here. We are trying to address all these issues in a coordinated manner,” she said.

The center will also digitize repatriation data to analyze the information.

Baghdasaryan says there are thousands of people who are considering repatriation to Armenia. “There is a lot of interest, and we don’t want to miss this. Now, there is a lot of interest from Lebanon, from Russia, France and the United States. Recently we started receiving inquiries from the Armenian community of Argentina.”

Preliminary timeframes of the center’s opening is in mid-2022.