Will a Ministry of Internal Affairs be Established in Armenia? Details

A Ministry of Internal Affairs will be established based on the Migration Service and the Police Department of Passports and Visas. Today, the program "Strengthening Migration Management Capacities in Support of the Government's Reform Agenda in line with CEPA" was officially launched. The aim is to develop migration and asylum systems in Armenia. This was stated by the Head of the Migration Service, Armen Ghazaryan, who highlighted three key components.

The first is the elimination of the decentralized migration system. "Problems arise when the data repositories are disconnected, and the individual interacts with multiple agencies to verify the same data; this will be excluded," he said.

The second issue highlighted by Ghazaryan is the professional retraining of employees, followed by the matter of digitization. "The main support of the program is for digitization because currently, it is practically impossible to imagine effective management in the migration sector without digital tools. Considering the decentralization, we have disjointed data repositories that require interaction and coordination, which is of utmost importance.

The Deputy Chief of Policequalifies the program as a step towards improving the migration sector and also addresses the ongoing process of implementing the biometric system," Ghazaryan noted.

In turn, Ara Fidanian, the Deputy Chief of Police of the Republic of Armenia, remarked, "We intend not to have a document designed solely for travel, which would identify the person, but rather a system for personal identification that can also be used in the economy, banking, and financial sectors."

The program is supported by the International Organization for Migration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.