95 eco-migrant families receive homes, land in rural Georgia

About 95 families who moved away from their home areas due to landslide risk, earthquakes or other natural disasters are the happy owners of new apartments and agricultural lands.

These people are known as eco-migrants and today they were granted ownership rights to apartments and agricultural lands following decision made at yesterday’s Government Meeting.

The eco-migrant families will receive properties in different parts of Georgia such as Tsalka, Tetritskaro, Lagodekhi, Signagi, Gurjaani, Akhmeta, Khoni, Dusheti, Marneuli.

These families have been living in these territories for a long time already and their problems were unsolved until today. We are happy to solve their problems and grant them ownership rights,” said Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili.

Together with Georgia’s Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia worked to resolve property ownership related problems for these 95 eco-migrant families.

Since the initiative began the current Government has granted apartment ownership rights to 285 eco-migrant families who were forced to leave their homes due to ecological instability.

Before the end of the year about 100 additional eco-migrant families will also be gifted new apartments, said the Ministry today.

Since 2013 the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia has purchased 300 houses in all parts of Georgia for eco-migrants.

The current number of eco-migrants in Georgia is unclear. Data from 2006 showed up to 37,000 families were registered as eco-migrants however this cannot be confirmed as there was no law that defined what it meant to be ecologically displaced or an agency that officially registered affected people and families.

The Government was now undertaking a nationwide project to formalise this data and determine how many eco-migrants there are in Georgia, define by law what it means to be displaced by a natural disaster and create a comprehensive database of affected people and families.

Part of this action will be to learn the reasons why families migrated and offer them official documents for their eco-migration.