Georgia pledges to support global efforts on migrants and refugees
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"Georgia is committed to pulling its weight in the global migration struggle and will continue to welcome and provide education to migrants,” vows Georgia’s Prime Minister Kvirikashvili.
Alongside his address at the United Nation’s General Assembly event on e-governance, on Monday Kvirikashvili also participated in the Summit for Refugees and Migrants. There he renewed Georgia’s commitment to actively contribute to global efforts towards alleviating the plight of migrants and asylum seekers.
My speech @UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants #UNGA#UN4RefugeesMigrantshttps://t.co/63FSowSngxpic.twitter.com/zfSAfI6VsI
— Giorgi Kvirikashvili (@KvirikashviliGi) September 19, 2016
He said Georgia had already received more than 4,000 asylum seekers from around the world. Georgian universities, thanks to assistance provided by donor countries and organisations, now offered educational programs for students from displaced communities.
Listen to the PM's full speech below.
"The right to a safe return is a basic human right and it must be guaranteed, irrespective of political differences [and] the burden of forced displacement has not bypassed Georgia,” he added, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Georgia’s regions Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) since the 1990s.
Approximately 400,000 people have been forcibly displaced [in Georgia], when Georgia’s entire population makes up only four million,” he said, noting "prospects of their safe return are grim with ongoing creeping annexation and installation of barbed wire fences along the occupation line”.
Meanwhile ethnic Georgians in the occupied territories continue to suffer from daily discrimination. It is simply not possible to turn a blind eye to this and to what is going on worldwide”.
Kvirikashvili said despite Georgia’s small size and its own internal security challenges, this did not in any way dull Georgia’s global efforts and the country would continue supporting the global migration challenge.