Refugees from Gadrut demand to resume social payments

Former residents of the territories that came under the control of Azerbaijan, held a protest action in front of the Armenian government building. They demand to solve problems with social benefits and housing. The authorities promised the protestors new measures of social support.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that migrants from Nagorno-Karabakh have repeatedly protested in front of the building of the Armenian government.

According to the Statistical Service of Karabakh, after the war of 2020, up to 40,000 people became forced migrants, of which 25,000 stay in Armenia. It is difficult for the forced migrants to find rental housing, and not every of them can prove the right to social assistance.

Arthur Stepanyan, one of the protesters, says Deputy Prime Minister Mger Grigoryan assured the protestors that the housing problem of Gadrut residents would be solved in Karabakh within three years, and until then the Armenian authorities would pay the rent for the forced migrants. However, the last rental payments were for August.

Albert Khachatryan from the village of Tumi in the Gadrut Districts now lives with his family in Yerevan and rents an apartment. According to him, during the war, he put his four children in a car and sent them to Armenia to some unknown destination, while he himself returned to posts.

“There are refugees among us who are already being kicked out of their apartments because they are in a desperate situation: they are short of money to pay for rented apartments,” another refugee noted.

Earlier, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh received financial assistance in the amount of 68,000 drams (about 140 US dollars). Since September, the authorities have stopped providing the above assistance to the refugees living in Armenia, which was the main income for those families.