As a result of the conflict in the Middle East 22 thousand refugees have found shelter in Armenia, but none of them lives in a tent. The representative of the Ministry of Diaspora, Levon Antonyan told about this at the seminar on “Refugees and Recognition of Qualifications”.
Mr. Antonyan said that our country was recognized as the third country after Germany and Sweden with the number of refugees taken by the ratio of our population.
Despite the socio-economic situation in Armenia, according to Levon Antonyan, our country has implemented a number of programs for the integration of refugees by organizing free language courses, providing with free healthcare services, compensating students’ fees, paying house rents, etc. Syrian-Armenian refugees’ children are admitted to kindergartens with no delays. Meanwhile, according to him, in many countries, so far, many people still live in tents.
Levon Antonyan also spoke of the problems of Syrian-Armenian refugees, noting that they have incomplete documentation certifying their education, besides, the issue of high remuneration is also a problem for them.
During the seminar, international challenges for recognition of refugee education qualifications and approaches to overcoming them were presented. According to the National Information Centre for Academic Recognition and Mobility representative Gayane Harutyunyan, the program aims to support the academic recognition centres in the European Region to recognize the qualifications of refugees, even if limited documentation is provided.
The Qualifications Passport for Refugees is intended for cases where the documents submitted for recognition are incomplete or absent. According to the seminar organizers, “It is a fact that people who have survived a difficult military-political situation are not always able to present their complete education documents in the host country”.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
