“We Are Eco-Prisoners and not Eco-Migrants”

They resemble their lives to the lives of prisoners. In 1987 despite great resistance they had to leave their homeland. The landslide turned their houses into ruins and peasants from Adjara became “interim Imereti region dwellers.”

They have lived in the village of Dedalauri in the Khoni District for twenty years already. They are missing their native Shuakhevi as well as minimum living conditions. Cradle and a hen-net are in one room in the shed which is used as a house. Here people and hens share their meals. All of them are hungry and very often they are dreaming about one sack of corn either.

Because of barren and swampy soil, since they were settled in here, eco-migrants have been looking forward to leaving the place. They say that if they had a chance they would departure immediately. However, they do not know where they should go.

“As soon as we left Adjara, the authority forgot about us. The Adjarian authority tells us that the authority of the district where we are currently registered should take care of us. They treat us as if it was our fault to leave the native region. Since that time we are expecting the assistance to go back. Time passes by and neither authority remembers us. We have never received any support or any hopeful word. You will be surprised but because of short place we place dead people in the yard to mourn,” said Natela Putkaradze, She and her family live in the extreme poverty and sometimes family members have to spend nights in the house of their neighbors. However, the difference between he living conditions of neighbors is too little. Every family lives in extreme poverty here.

One part of 300 families of eco-migrants from Adjara was settled in the building of former Internal Ministry’s isolator in the 1980s. Since that time they have become eco-prisoners. The term of the imprisonment is unidentified; the verdict gives less hope to rely on. “We are likely to spend the whole of our lives here. Prisoners are happier than we are. They know that one fine day they will be released. We are likely to spend our lives here,” said eco-migrants.

At that time local authority speaks about some other priorities. “In the past the authority offered them both construction materials and accommodations too. However, they demanded compensation. Currently we cannot assist these people. The number first problem for local authority is victims of earthquake in the Sachkhere district. Then they should attend to the families victimized after a land slide in Vani district. Finally they might pay attention to eco-migrants too. However, we should point out that each family would be treated individually. We have found out that some of them were aided,” said Eliso Koladze, the head of the press-service department for Akaki Bobokhidze, the Imereti Region Governor. The governor does not want to make comments on the situation who became MP with the support of Khoni district population.

The aid that is being currently spoken at the Imereti Regional Administrative Board, amounts to 150 000 lari. We have found out that the sum was apportioned from the central budget in 2005 and should have been spent on purchasing the houses for eco-migrants. However, it did not happen so. The reason for the delay was lack of passports on technical equipments. Unfortunately, nobody assisted the people to get necessary documents.

Since the Eco-Migrants Case was put aside, neither man nor funds have been found to resolve the problem. The only relief is that local authority advises them to resettle to Tsalka though it is unacceptable for you. They say they would not live in farther distance from their native region.

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi