Azerbaijan vs. Iran
Transnational Issues
| Azerbaijan | Iran | |
|---|---|---|
| Disputes - international | Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratified the Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continues to insist on a one-fifth slice of the sea; the dispute over the break-away Nagorno-Karabakh region and the Armenian military occupation of surrounding lands in Azerbaijan remains the primary focus of regional instability; residents have evacuated the former Soviet-era small ethnic enclaves in Armenia and Azerbaijan; local border forces struggle to control the illegal transit of goods and people across the porous, undemarcated Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian borders; bilateral talks continue with Turkmenistan on dividing the seabed and contested oilfields in the middle of the Caspian | Iran protests Afghanistan's limiting flow of dammed Helmand River tributaries during drought; Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf; Iran and UAE dispute Tunb Islands and Abu Musa Island, which are occupied by Iran; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratified Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continues to insist on a one-fifth slice of the sea; Afghan and Iranian commissioners have discussed boundary monument densification and resurvey |
| Illicit drugs | limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for CIS consumption; small government eradication program; transit point for Southwest Asian opiates bound for Russia and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe | despite substantial interdiction efforts and considerable control measures along the border with Afghanistan, Iran remains one of the primary transshipment routes for Southwest Asian heroin to Europe; suffers one of the highest opiate addiction rates in the world, and has an increasing problem with synthetic drugs; regularly enforces the death penalty for drug offences; lacks anti-money laundering laws; has reached out to neighboring countries to share counter-drug intelligence |
| Refugees and internally displaced persons | IDPs: 735,000 (conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh; IDPs are mainly ethnic Azerbaijanis but also include ethnic Kurds, Russians, and Turks predominantly from occupied territories around Nagorno-Karabakh; includes IDPs' descendants, returned IDPs, and people living in insecure areas and excludes people displaced by natural disasters; around half the IDPs live in the capital Baku) (2020) stateless persons: 3,585 (2020) | refugees (country of origin): 2.1-2.25 million undocumented Afghans, 586,000 Afghan passport holders, 780,000 Afghan refugee card holders, 20,000 Iraqi refugee card holders (2020) stateless persons: 34 (2020) |
| Trafficking in persons | current situation: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Azerbaijan and exploit Azerbaijanis abroad; Azerbaijani men and boys experience forced labor domestically and in Qatar, Russia, and the UAE; Azerbaijani women and children are subjected to sex trafficking domestically and in Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, and the UAE; Azerbaijan is a destination country for sex and forced labor trafficking victims from China, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan; some children are exploited domestically for forced begging and forced labor as roadside vendors and at tea houses and wedding venues tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Azerbaijan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; more traffickers were convicted and judges received guidance to issue stricter sentences; the government significantly increased funding for victim protection by establishing grants for civil society; however, authorities identified fewer victims than in the previous year, did not regularly screen vulnerable populations, and continued to lack proactive identification methods, resulting in victims being penalized for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2020) | current situation: Iran is a presumed source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Iranian and Afghan boys and girls are forced into prostitution domestically; Iranian women are subjected to sex trafficking in Iran, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, and Europe; Azerbaijani women and children are also sexually exploited in Iran; Afghan migrants and refugees and Pakistani men and women are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Iran; NGO reports indicate that criminal organizations play a significant role in human trafficking in Iran tier rating: Tier 3 - Iran does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Iran remained in Tier 3; the government continued a policy of recruiting and using child soldiers, government officials perpetrated sex trafficking of adults and children and continued trafficking both in Iran and overseas; the government continued to force or coerce children and adults to fight for Iranian-led militias operating in Syria and provided financial support to militias fighting in armed conflicts in the region using child soldiers; authorities failed to identify and protect trafficking victims among vulnerable populations; law enforcement treated trafficking victims as criminals, facing severe punishment or death for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2020) |
Source: CIA Factbook
