995 foreigners seek asylum in Georgia
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Almost a thousand foreign citizens are seeking asylum in Georgia, including people from Syria and Iraq who are fleeing conflict on their home soil, says Georgia’s Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili.
Today Nanuashvili presented his latest Report about Asylum Seekers, Refugees and People with Humanitarian Status to highlight the number of people who now lived in Georgia after fleeing their home nation, and the number of people who had applied to come here as refugees or asylum seekers.
Official data from October 2015 showed 995 foreign citizens were seeking asylum in Georgia.
When presenting the report, Nanuashvili stressed 1,192 refugees and people with special humanitarian status lived in Georgia under international protection. The majority of these people were citizens of Iraq, Ukraine, Russia and Syria, and had mainly fled due to conflict in their home country.
Georgia's Public Defender dedicated a special report to asylum seekers, refugees and people with humanitarian status. Photo by the Public Defender of Georgia.
The report discussed monitoring results in terms of studying human rights of those granted the status of refugee.
Georgia’s Public Defender spoke of the merits of the current legislation regarding asylum seekers and refugees but noted there were several issues that needed to be addressed.
The main area of Nanuashvili’s concern related to official discussions surrounding asylum seekers’ applications. Currently official discussions about an asylum seekers’ application could be stretched to nine months when the appeal term, if application was rejected, was only 15 days.
The Public Defender concluded the application discussion term should be reduced while the appeal term should be lengthened to a month.
Today’s presentation at Tbilisi Holiday Inn Hotel was attended by representatives of various state agencies, non-governmental organisations, diplomatic corps and invited guests.
Georgia is offering housing to about 500 refugees from eastern Ukraine who were forced from their homes by ongoing conflict.
People wishing to seek asylum in Georgia are being given more assistance, thanks to the installation of special help desks as Georgia’s main airport.
Georgia is now granting refugee or humanitarian status to 95 percent of asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq, who have escaped the violent regime of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Georgian officials say.
The Government of Georgia will invest 2 million GEL in a project to provide purpose-built housing units for asylum seekers.
Asylum seekers from war-torn countries wanting to seek shelter in Georgia will be granted special permission to stay in the country for one year, says a Georgian official.
The report stated people living in Georgia’s occupied regions are deprived of a range of opportunities and their fundamental human rights, such as the right to health, life, education and free movement, are continually violated.
More than 2,500 cases of domestic violence were reported in Georgia last year, there were more than two dozen cases of murder or attempted murder of females and hundreds of cases of underage marriage, said the Public Defender in his annual report to Parliament.
Official data reads that 947 people asked for asylum in Georgia in 2016. Meanwhile, 1,513 people have refugee and humanitarian status in the country.
Georgia granted asylum to 82 foreign citizens during the period of January 1 to December 20 2018, announces Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Georgia granted asylum to 38 foreign citizens during the period of October-December 2021, the Ministry of Internal Affairs revealed.