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31 December 2008
A 2004 survey found over 8,000 people still internally displaced in Armenia, over a decade after ethnic violence and conflict with Azerbaijan had forced them to leave border areas in the early 1990s. The conflict displaced over 70,000 people within Armenia, but the plight of the larger number of refugees from Azerbaijan and of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by a massive 1988 earthquake and other natural disasters overshadowed that of conflict-induced IDPs.
Conflict-induced IDPs have remained dispersed in rural areas and in towns and cities, mainly in the capital Yerevan and in Syunik, Tavush and Gegharkunik provinces. Rural and urban IDPs have shared problems of inadequate shelter, and only a small percentage of those originally displaced have been able to buy a home. In urban areas IDPs’ lack of suitable skills has led them to work in the shadow economy; displaced households and particularly those headed by a woman have often been unable to afford to send children to school.
Many people returned to their homes following the 1994 ceasefire agreement, but have had limited access to adequate education or medical services due to damaged buildings and the lack of staff. The continuing insecurity and destruction of infrastructure have discouraged the return of the remaining IDPs, as have the lack of jobs and continuing presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance. Meanwhile, nearly 20,000 homes damaged or destroyed during the conflict are in need of rehabilitation.
The Department of Migration and Refugees is mandated to ensure the protection of conflict-induced IDPs; however, without a solution to the confl ict, the political will to provide them targeted assistance or further funding to rehabilitate border areas, and with no international agencies providing protection or assistance, the difficulties facing this relatively small group are likely to endure.