Over 8,000 stateless people have received a citizenship of Turkmenistan in recent years, UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan Elena Panova said during the ceremony of presenting Turkmen passports to 863 stateless persons in the State Migration Service of the country, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.

The event is timed to the 28th anniversary of Turkmenistan Independence Day.

Panova said that people who received a passport of Turkmenistan will be able to enjoy all the rights and benefits intended for citizens of the country.

The resident coordinator noted that by providing citizenship to stateless persons, Turkmenistan is contributing to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

"Turkmenistan has granted citizenship to more than 8,000 people in recent years,” she said. "This is an indicator of the country’s contribution to the achievement of the sustainable development goals. We continue to support Turkmenistan in this work.”

Further, the resident coordinator expressed regret that the number of new cases of statelessness is increasing throughout the world.

Panova noted that more than 10 million stateless people live in the world.

In turn, Chairman of the State Migration Service of Turkmenistan Mergen Gurdov, said that Turkmenistan has adopted a national plan to reduce the number of stateless persons, covering the period from 2019 to 2024.

He noted that people who have received passports of Turkmenistan are working in various areas of the country’s economy and citizenship will enable them to fully participate in the further development of Turkmenistan.

Further, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia Natalia Gherman noted that the eradication of statelessness is a rather ambitious, but achievable goal.

"This problem is currently relevant for at least 10 million people around the world,” she said. "In particular, countries in Central Asia have made great progress in solving this problem. Nevertheless, there are still more than 100,000 stateless persons in the region. Turkmenistan is the only country in the region that has acceded to two important documents of 1961 (Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness) and of 1954 (Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons). The UN continues dialogue with other countries of Central Asia to work towards reducing the number of stateless persons.”