More than 52,000 Nagorno-Karabakh refugees received 100,000 drams lump-sum assistance

YEREVAN, October 9. /ARKA/. More than 52,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh have already received lump-sum assistance of AMD 100 thousand, provided by the Armenian government, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs David Khachatryan said today.

He also said that some 17,139 applications have been received from parents of minors who are also eligible to the assistance. According to him, there are 26,963 minors in the lists of forcibly displaced persons from Karabakh.

'So far 1,005 applications submitted on behalf of minors have been satisfied, 306 have been rejected and 15,828 are in the process of consideration,' the deputy minister said.

According to Khachatryan, the main reason for rejecting applications submitted on behalf of minors is that they are not eligible to the assistance, i.e. they were not forcibly displaced after September 24. Another reason for rejection of applications is that the minors are not on the territory of Armenia.

Under the Armenian government's decision, the refugees will be receiving 40,000 drams a month for the next six months to pay home rent and another 10,000 drams per person to pay utility bills. All displaced people except for those who have housing in Armenia, are eligible to this assistance.

On September 19, Azerbaijan launched what it called an "anti-terrorist" operation against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh.

The assault lasted 24 hours and ended with Azerbaijani forces gaining full control of the region for the first time since the 1990s war.

This led to a vast refugee crisis, with more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing the region to the Republic of Armenia. -0-