Armenia Declines Granting Refugee Status to Afghans who Illegally Crossed Border

YEREVAN (News.am) — The Armenian State Migration Agency (SMA) has not granted refugee status to Afghanistan citizens Shokat Aminzai -a Turk- and Sediqhollah Alizadeh -an Afghan-, who had illegally crossed the Turkey-Armenia border.

Head of the SMA Asylum Affairs Division, Petros Aghababian stated that “The commission examined and rejected their petitions, since the [respective] data did not meet the requirements of our legislation.”

The next court hearing in the case involving Aminzai and Alizadeh is scheduled for April 1.

Shokat Aminzai and Sediqhollah Alizadeh had testified that they had fled their country, found themselves in a third country, and at first they did not even know which country’s border they were crossing. They had petitioned to Armenia, with a request for being granted refugee status.

They are charged with illegally crossing the Armenian border, and their case is in court.

According to the indictment, Shokat Aminzai had reached a preliminary agreement with Sediqhollah Alizadeh, and they crossed the Turkish-Armenian border on October 6, 2015. But they were apprehended by the Armenian border service officers. A criminal charge was brought against them, and arrest was enforced as their restraining order.