10:10,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. The Center for Integration of Repatriates is expected to open in the end of spring. The office of the new organization launched by the Office of the High Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs will be located at 37 Hanrapetutyan Street in downtown Yerevan.

“Our main partner, the Hrayr and Anna Hovnanian Foundation, financed the whole renovation. Overall, we can say that the work in this direction is completed. We still have things to do with furnishing, then we will move there and I think that we will be able to open our doors for repatriates in the end of spring,” the coordinator of the project Margarita Baghdasaryan told ARMENPRESS.

The purpose of the new center is to facilitate the integration process for repatriates by offering a one-window access to more services.

“Our goal is to foster the swift and easy integration of repatriates in Armenia. Our work is going to be helping those who are interested in repatriation, and those who’ve already moved to Armenia, providing support, consultation from one center, given the fact that some bureaucratic issues happen elsewhere. This center will support them,” Baghdasaryan said.

She added that the launch of the new center itself shows the significance that the government attaches to repatriation.

Today, the Office of the High Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs is rendering the above-mentioned services, but the new center will have an extended staff and broader range of services.

Among planned initiatives are comprehensive training courses of Armenian language, seminars on how to open a business in Armenia, the tax and customs conditions, trends in the job markets etc.

The Center for Integration of Repatriates will digitize the data of repatriates.

“Another goal of the center is to coordinate and digitize the entire repatriation process. Unfortunately, we don’t have that digitization system today, but it is under development. Repatriates will be able to create their personal accounts in the system, fill in their data and contact our staff. We’ll have the entire picture upon their arrival and will offer solutions and a response accordingly.”

In 2022, 25,000 ethnic Armenians applied for Armenian citizenship.

Most of those who moved to Armenia in the recent period are from Russia, Syria and Lebanon. Many from Australia and Argentina are also displaying interest towards moving to Armenia.

Anna Gziryan