MINSK, 6 October (BelTA) – It is important to keep the UNHCR's mandate depoliticized and to continue efforts aimed at enhancing national capacities in the field of refugee management, Belarus' Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva Yuri Ambrazevich said when speaking at the general debate of the 67th session of the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees which is running in Geneva on 3-7 October, BelTA learned from the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Yuri Ambrazevich expressed support for the strategic areas and priorities laid out in the report of High Commissioner Filippo Grandi. The Belarusian diplomat said that in recent years Belarus has faced a wave of inflow of Ukrainian citizens as a result of the crisis in the south-east of that country. He noted that Belarus has received more than 160,000 people from Ukraine, which made the country the biggest recipient of forced migrants per capita.
The Belarusian diplomat further stressed the importance of effective support of the UNHCR to the governments concerned. He welcomed the contribution of the UNHCR experts to further improvement of the Belarusian legislation on asylum and also announced Belarus' intention to conduct a comprehensive assessment of Belarus' accession to the UN Statelessness Convention and expressed the hope for the continued UNHCR technical and expert support.
