Health Minister explains Government assistance to Ukrainian refugees, says “politicisation” of the topic “inappropriate”

Georgian Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili on Monday responded to comments by the Droa opposition party over the Government’s assistance programme for Ukrainian refugees in the country by noting “politicisation” of the topic was “inappropriate”.

Minister said the refugees had already left most of the hotels, with the majority of them having already received the aid.

The employees of the Agency for Internally Displaced People visited 40 hotels and all IDPs were registered. They had already received the assistance. There is speculation as if the Georgian government has left the Ukrainian refugees without shelters,” Azarashvili said.

He also noted the Government had also offered alternative shelters to those who had already left hotels.

Azarashvili has explained the Government decided to assist Ukrainian refugees and those, who  were not accommodated in hotels, with ₾300 ($108) each family and ₾45($16) each person, upon their request.

Azarashvili also said before making the decision of assistance for the refugees, the Georgian government had seen the practices and examples of all countries where Ukrainians had received assistance and shelter.

I would like to briefly explain how the Georgian government defined the amount of assistance. As you know, Ukrainian refugees are present in different countries and we have seen the practices and examples of all the countries. It is also important that we have about 300,000 displaced compatriots in the country. We [the Georgian government] wanted this amount to be close to their aid package,” Azarashvili noted.

Azarashvili’s announcement was preceded by a call to the public from Elene Khoshtaria, the leader of the opposition Droa party, to help the Ukrainian families who were left homeless.

At today's briefing, Khoshtaria said the aid programme for Ukrainian families in Georgia had ended.