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New rules requiring Azerbaijani nationals living abroad to report to their nearest consulate look like an attempt to keep tabs on political émigrés, Afgan Mukhtarli, an Azerbaijani journalist living abroad, writes in his article published on the website of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

According to the information, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry amended the law on the registration of Azerbaijani citizens living abroad. Under the new rules introduced on April 30, 2015 all Azerbaijani citizens must register at a consulate within a month of arriving in a foreign country and give documentary evidence of the work they are engaged in. The foreign ministry’s department will forward this information to the state migration service and to the labor and welfare ministry.

Natig Adilov, a journalist now living as a political émigré in France, told IWPR the Azerbaijani government already had a range of ways of monitoring citizens living abroad. “People who left Azerbaijan because of political persecution or unemployment are under constant surveillance by the government,” he said. “This constant scrutiny of citizens in exile, political refugees in particular, used to be carried out by diaspora organizations. Over the last year, journalists and NGO workers have left Azerbaijan, mainly for political reasons, to continue their activities in different countries, and the government does not like this, to put it mildly,” the journalist said stressing that the new rules are a further step towards exerting total surveillance of Azerbaijani citizens living abroad.

Azer Ismayil, an advisor to the opposition Musavat party chairman, added that it would become hard for people to earn a living even outside Azerbaijan. “Many politicians, journalists and NGO workers are now abroad, having fled persecution. They have to work in order to live. But in order to do that, they must come voluntarily to the [consular] offices of the state that persecutes them,” he told IWPR.

According to the article, he said that failure to register meant that expatriates would be unable to renew their passports when the time came. When it comes to persecution, there will not be any difference between living abroad or within the country, he added.

IWPR also interviewed Dashgin Agalarli, a member of Musavat party who now lives in Georgia. “The Azerbaijani government has set itself the goal of silencing political opponents by any means. Those who left the country due to political persecution are now being hounded abroad. The Azerbaijani government uses mind-boggling methods to bring these active emigres back so as to place them under arrest,” the oppositionist said.

According to the article, Agalarli himself was detained for six months in Georgia in 2014 at the request of the authorities in Azerbaijan. However, during a trial monitored by international human rights organizations and the United Nations, the accusations put forward against him were deemed to be unfounded, and he was released.

Agalarli also highlighted that the intrusive surveillance will affect everyone who goes abroad, not just dissidents. “There are now hundreds of businessmen who left the country because of the economic climate that’s been created in Azerbaijan. These people are now working successfully in various countries. The new rules will allow authorities to keep watch on them,” he added.

According to the article, lawyer Muzaffar Bakhish told the Azerbaijani service RFE/RL that the amendments to the registration rules for Azerbaijani nationals abroad is a continuation of a 2014 amendment to Azerbaijan’s citizenship law which in its turn is in contravention of the Azerbaijani Constitution.

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