Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees signed in the CSTO Secretariat

The CSTO Secretariat signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

January 17, 2017 in the CSTO Secretariat Acting Secretary General of the CSTO Valery Semerikov met with the Head of the Office of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Russian Federation Vladimir Tsurko.  

At the beginning of the meeting the Acting Secretary General of the CSTO Semerikov V.A. congratulated Tsurko V.A. with the appointment of the Head of the UNHCR Office in the Russian Federation.  

During the further meeting, Semerikov V.A. briefly informed the UNHCR on the migration situation in the CSTO zone and on the measures taken to counter illegal migration.  

In his speech, he stressed that one of the most important activities of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is countering modern challenges and threats, including threats related to illegal migration.  

“Illegal migration is not only a threat in itself. It is closely linked to such forms of cross-border crime as international terrorism, arms trafficking, drug trafficking and human trafficking, ”said Valery Semerikov.  

In addition, attention was drawn to the fact that today the need to increase the efforts of the entire world community in the interests of global migration security is already obvious. “As the main ways of achieving this goal, we consider, on the one hand, the creation of conditions for maximally favorable immigration and naturalization of those categories of foreign citizens whose stay in the countries meets their interests, on the other hand, the formation and development of an effective system to counter illegal migration”, noted the Acting Secretary General of the CSTO.  

In the course of the further meeting, he provided information on the cooperation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization with various UN agencies and dealt in greater detail with the questions of interaction with UNHCR.

The parties agreed to start cooperation in the field of comparative legal analysis of the legislation of the CSTO member states on refugees and asylum seekers, with the preparation of appropriate recommendations to bring it in line with the requirements of generally accepted international legal documents.  

Head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Russian Federation Vladimir Tsurko, in turn, stressed that UNHCR is interested in working with the CSTO Secretariat and expanding the forms of interaction. “This issue is even more relevant in the light of the resolution adopted at the last (71) session of the UN General Assembly on expanding cooperation between the UN and the CSTO,” said V. Tsurko.  

The proposed areas of cooperation between the CSTO Secretariat and the UNHCR were fully supported by the Head of the UNHCR Office in the Russian Federation.  

Following the meeting, the Acting Secretary General of the CSTO, on behalf of the CSTO Secretariat, and the Head of the UNHCR Office in the Russian Federation, on behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees signed a" Memorandum of Understanding between the Secretariat Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "  

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CSTO spokesman Vladimir Zainetdinov  

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