Haykakan Zhamanak: Migration Service avoids publishing data

The Migration Service of Armenia has not yet released statistical data about the number of people who arrived in Armenia and left the country in the first three months of this year, “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily notes. This index is always published in the middle of the month following the reporting period. The head of Migration Service Gagik Yeganian told the newspaper’s correspondent that so far they have not received this data from the National Statistical Service of Armenia.

“A few days ago we received information that the statistical data of departures is not published because the picture is shameful. These statistics approximately show the growth in the number of citizens who leave Armenia. Delaying the release of this index, statisticians are trying to “smooth over”a bit the indices or to delay their publication until the elections to Yerevan Council of Elders,” the paper writes.

According to the daily, to judge by the data of the first two months of 2013, the negative balance between the number of those who arrived and left grew 1.5-fold compared with last year. It means that a minimum of 70 thousand people leave Armenia annually and about 330 thousand have left the country in the past five years.