55,000 Georgians use Georgia-EU visa-free benefit

Georgia’s Deputy Interior Minister Shalva Khutsishvili says that 55,000 Georgian citizens have made use of Georgia-EU visa-free opportunity since March 28, 2017.

3,000 of those people have not yet returned back, after the expiration of the 90-day period,” Khutsishvili told IPN news agency, saying this may not necessarily mean that the people violated the agreement rule.

Khutsishvili stated that part of the people who have not returned back and who have been identified by the Ministry, may have traveled to countries Georgia also has a visa-free regime with.

There are possibilities that from the EU nations a number of people left for Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus and similar countries. Thus, we cannot definitely say now that all 3,000 of them violated the law,” Khutsishvili stated.

The Deputy Minister announced that after the Georgia-EU visa liberation came into play a larger number of Georgians traveled to countries to where Georgia has direct flights or where the nation has a big diaspora, like Germany, France, Poland, Greece and several others.