Re: Information on the status of refugees in Georgia and Abchasia

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Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:36:50 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Information on the status of refugees in Georgia and Abchasia

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Alexander Ossipov <[email protected]>

Re: Information on the status of refugees in Georgia and
Abchasia


Dear Viona,
 
Around 40 thousand residents of Abkhazia (mostly ethnic Georgians and
Armenians) fled from Abkhazia to Russia (Krasnodar territory) in 1992.
Krasnodar region was the first safe territory for them. They left
Georgia (Abkhazia) before the Law of Republic Georgia "On the
Citizenship in Georgia" entered into effect on 23 March, 1993. Thus,
they didn't become citizens of Georgia by acknowledgment on the basis
of point "a", Article 3 of the Law, and should be regarded as actual
stateless persons. Paata Zakhareishvili, the head of the apparatus of
the Committee on Human Rights and National Minorities of the
Parliament of Georgia told me, that the Resolution of the President of
Georgia # 637 " On the Order of Consideration and Settlement of
Questions Related to Georgian Citizenship" of 9 November 9, 1998,
those who were forced to leave Georgia as a result of
Georgian-Abkhazian conflict in principle may confirm their belonging
to the citizenship of Georgia and receive passports of Republic of
Georgia, but it is quite a complicated procedure and will be hard to
use by many refugees. They will have to submit to the Ministry of
Justice of Republic Georgia a documented confirmation of the fact,
that before 21 December, 1991 they lived on the territory of Georgia;
that they were forced to leave the territory of Abkhazia; a
certificate from the state, where they found a temporary asylum and
where they had status as a refugee; a confirmation that they didn't
decline the citizenship of Georgia  and the fact, that they didn't
acquire citizenship of any other state.
 
At the moment most of the 1992 refugees from Abkhazia live in
Krasnodar territory without propiskas (i.e. residence permits), they
don't have any legal status, they haven't ever had an access to any
procedure of status determination, and they are subjected to permanent
police persecutions. The Memorial will shortly issue a report (in
Russian and in English) on discrimination on ethnic ground against
Meskhetians, and the case of the refugees from Abkhazia will be also
mentioned there. There are also thousands of Georgian refugees from
Abkhazia in Russia (including Moscow region). For the most of them the
first safe territory was inner Georgia. Their overwhelming majority
doesn't have any status, they even didn't have access to the
procedures, and they are regularly subjected to persecutions and
discrimination.
 
Best wishes,
 
Alexander Ossipov,
programme manager,
The 'Memorial' Human Rights Centre,
12 Maly Karetny per., Moscow 103051 Russia,
tel. 7 095 370 70 83 pr.
fax 7 095 209 57 79
e-mail <[email protected]>

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