“We Were Expelled from Homeland and Now We Are Not Allowed to Send Chocolates to Our Children” – Georgian Emigrants Complain about Erekle Kodua’s Moth
February 23, 2011
Sopo Getsadze
Citizens of Georgia called the Human Rights Center from Greece and complained that they cannot send parcels to Georgia. They connect the problem with the head of Criminal Police Department within the MIA Erekle Kodua and his mother Laura Ghachava.
An immigrant Georgian woman (we prefer not to publish her name at this point) told the Human Rights Center that they have not been able to send parcels from Greece to Georgia for three months already. The reason is refusal of the Georgian Custom Service Department to accept parcels. The emigrants said unless the problem is resolved till the end of February they will hold large-scale protest demonstration in front of the Georgian Embassy in Greece.
“About 3 000 Georgian women stand behind me. The Georgian and Greek post-offices have been refusing us to send our parcels for three months already. These offices used to pay taxes to the Georgian and Greek Tax Departments for many years. As we have learned, the delay originated by the disagreement of Erekle Kodua’s mother with certain people. If Laura Ghachava is mother, we also have children and grandchildren; why do not they allow us to send parcels to our families?!” the woman spoke in astonishment who called us from Greece.
-Cannot you send parcels at all or you face some problems when sending them?
-We have not been allowed to send parcels to Georgia for three months already. During New Year holidays they promised to allow us to send “small parcels” but we could not understand what they meant by it. Cannot I send one kilogram of chocolate and a small toy to my child for his birthday? Women work here without documents and miss their families. The officials of Georgian government are guilty in our migrating abroad. They have expelled us from the homeland and now they do not allow us to send chocolates to our children!
Today, I called the deputy minister of communications in Georgia and he answered me ironically: you can go to a post office in Greece, pay money and your parcels will arrive in Georgia without any problems. I repeat once more – we do not face any problems in Greece; we can send anything from here but Georgian Custom Department and Erekle Kodua personally block it. We cannot completely understand what is going on.
-What did they mean by “small parcels”?
-It should be less than one kilogram. We can send only a document from Greece.
-What is their official reply to your requests? Why do not they accept your parcels? How they clarified it?
-I do not know whether it is official clarification or not but here we were told that Georgian Special Operative Department does not allow the Georgian Custom Department to accept parcels.
-Why does not the SOD allow the Custom Department to accept your parcels?
-I do not know what their interests are but now they will see our protest! I think we are still citizens of Georgia though they have created problems for us there and that made us to go abroad to work.
3 000 and even 5 000 people will gather here; I have contact only with the people who live in Athens but many people live on islands and in the regions. So, more than 5 000 people will join our protest rally.
-When did you last send the parcel from Greece?
-Almost one and half month ago but I do not know where it was delivered. It was lost in Georgia. The Georgian side alleged the parcel was not sent from Greece but Greece has sent it. The parcel was delivered at wrong address.
-Did you call the people who are responsible to accept parcels in Georgia?
-We cannot get in touch with the Georgian government – the ministry of foreign affairs or ministry of finances. The Tax Department does not have a phone-number on their website at all. We decided – unless they resolve the problem till the end of February, everybody, who is now with me and not only 3 000 or 1 500 citizens of Georgia will hold protest rallies in front of the Georgian Embassies and Consulates in Greece. It will be serious scandal for our country.
-What do they promise? When will they resolve the problem?
-They promised to resolve the problems initially in two weeks and then in a month but three months have already passed and no solution. Finally, we decided to start rallies against the Georgian government unless they allow us to send parcels till the end of this month. The residents of other countries will also join our protest; as far as I know they also face problems in sending the parcels to Georgia.
In order to check the information provided by the immigrant woman, we called the post service center within the Border Office within the Department for Revenues at the Ministry of Finances of Georgia. We were told they did not have information that people face some problems when sending parcels from Greece. They could not tell us when last parcel arrived from Greece. However, they denied information about Georgian Custom Department having refused to accept parcels and explained the delay by closure of Greek Embassy in Georgia. “In November, 2010 The Greek Post Office was closed in Georgia for unknown reasons; this office was in charge of delivering parcels by overland route. Currently, the parcels arrive in Georgia by air-mail through Germany and other countries.”
The Human Rights Center could not find out the connection between the parcel problem and Kodua or his mother Laura Ghachava. Due to serious discontent of Georgian immigrants, we decided to publish this article before we could clarify every detail of this problem.
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