Georgian Minister informs international community over IDPs problems
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, October 8
The Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia, Sozar Subari, is taking part in the 66th meeting of the Executive Committee of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, where the Minister will familiarise the international community over the complications Georgia’s Internally Displaced people (IDPs) are facing daily due to Russian aggression on Georgian soil.
The Minister, who intends to arrive in Geneva before the end of the week, has already delivered the speech before the UN Refugee Agency, the body mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country.
The Minister stressed that the majority of Georgian IDPs forced from the currently occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) were living in poor conditions and appealed to the international community to support Georgia in settling the problems, and protect the rights of those Georgian citizens living on the so-called Administrative Boundary Lines (ABD) who were facing permanent violations of their rights from the occupiers.
Together with the domestic problems, the Minister touched upon the international migration complications and stressed that Georgia supported the European Union (EU) proposal to jointly support people forced from their homes from Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and other conflict zones.
Subari also stated that various amendments have been introduced in Georgian legislation to make the country prepared for visa-free travel within the EU.
Evaluating the speech, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Gutierres praised Georgia, both for its domestic and foreign policies concerning IDPs and refugees, the Georgian Ministry announced.
