Chechen Refugees Lost Status

Chechen refugees residing in the Pankisi Gorge blame the Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation for incompetence. They claim that the ministry has deprived the refugees from their status illegally; so they will not issue IDs for Temporary Residence to them in Georgia. Consequently they will not receive fourteen-lari allowance anymore. UN High Commissioner for Refugees stops Food Program and Free Medical Aid for refugees.

Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation started to issue IDs on temporary residence in April of 2007. Every family member who had ID would receive fourteen-lari allowance from the Georgian State Budget. Georgian government considered it was necessary to support Chechen refugees with those small allowances since the UNHCR stated officially that they were going to stop Food Program in 2008.

“As only small number of Chechen Refugees remained in Georgia and for some other reasons too, we are going to stop Food Program in 2008. However, we will not leave you without attention. We will go on to consider your problems,” said Peter Nikolaous, one of the representatives of the UNHCR, when he was visiting the Pankisi Gorge.

Within the UNHCR Program, monthly nutrition ration for Chechen refugees is the following: 13,5 kilos of flour, 0,6 kilo of sugar, 2,7 kilos of beans, 0,75 liter of oil, 0,5 tin of milk powder, 0,5 tin of fish; 6,5 packets of dry soup; 200 gr. of black coffee; 500 gr. of iodized salt.

Within the UNHCR program, once in two months Chechen refugees received three bars of soup; 1 packet of washing powder; one tube of tooth paste; one tooth brush; three packets of hygiene handkerchiefs (for women from 12 to 60).

Chechen refugees said in their conversation with us that despite the assistance they received within the UNHCR Program their living and social conditions were extremely poor. “Seven people live in one room. I live with my husband and five children. We have two beds where our children sleep. My wife and I sleep on the floor or on the chair. The windows do not have glasses and we have stretched cellophanes on them. Let alone terrible living conditions, we are half starving. UNHCR’s assistance is not enough for us. After the program finishes we will starve as fourteen lari will not be enough for us. We will afford to buy only bread with the money. We do not have any other income besides our allowances,” said twenty-three-year-old Raisa Alkhanishvili.

Further complicated is the situation for those Chechen refugees who were deprived from their refugees’ status by the Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation before they granted them with the IDs on temporary residence. Dozens of families remained without all kinds of allowances and they are starving.

“I received a letter dated by the March 24 2007 from the Department of Migration, Repatriation and Refugees within the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation. The letter stated that according to the Georgian Law on “Refugees”, Article I Section I, I was deprived from the refugee status. In addition to that they informed me that I lost all kind of social allowances and I must hand in my documents regarding refugee status. I was born in Georgia but then lived in Chechnya for twenty years. Before my resettlement to the Pankisi Gorge I abolished my registration in the local Registration Service Department and I have corresponding documents. I had Soviet passport at that time and it there was not information about Georgian citizenship at all. I changed my soviet passport when I lived in Chechnya and took Russian Passport. Subsequently I became Russian citizen without any machinations. During military activities in Grozno I left Chechnya with many other people and became a refugee. Despite all that the Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation does not recognize me as a refugee,” said Tsiala Muzikashvili, a resident of the Pankisi Gorge.

Chechen refugee, Taus Erzanukaeva, mother of nine children said that the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation did not grant me with the status because she is on the list of those refugees who want to resettle to the third country. “I have been waiting for the resettlement to Canada for four years already. Canada is mot hurrying to accept us and our resettlement process has prolonged. Meanwhile I was enjoying my refugee status but when they started to issue IDs of Temporary Inhabitance, they did not grant me with ID because I am on the list of people who await the resettlement to Canada. I have nine children and old husband. When the UN stops Food Program I do not know what I shall do. Representatives of the Ministry do not explain it to us,” said Taus Erzanukova.

“Those people who were born and registered in Georgia they are considered Georgian citizens. Many refugees have two passports, Georgian and Russian that is forbidden under the law. The Ministry of Justice is surveying the situation and we are acting according to their letters. Refugees made fraudulent documents. As I have already mentioned, one person has two passports and those people might be prosecuted. There are many people who were not deprived from their status for the reason. We simply stopped to issue IDs on temporary inhabitance to them. There might be some mistakes too but if people apply to us problems will be eradicated,” said Irakli Kokaia.

Human rights organizations condemn the work of the Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation regarding Chechen refugees. NGO Human Rights Center, which monitors the rights of the Chechen refugees, reminds the Ministry that the Convention on the Status of Refugee and not Georgian Law on Refugees regulates the legislation in Georgia. Besides that, the convention states that the refugee maintains his/her status regardless Georgian Government grants him/her with the status or not. “Granting the status of refugee is an administrative case and it does not estimate whether the refugee is really refugee or not. According to the Convention Article I, if Georgian Government does not want to follow the Convention on the Status of Refugee, the government should refuse to ratify the convention and should not pretend to follow international laws. The authority ignores those regulations as soon as they remain beyond international interest,” said Ucha Nanuashvili, Executive Director of the organization.

According to the Human Rights Center, several Chechen refugees residing in the Pankisi Gorge live in serious danger, because those people are threatened with revenge. By the way, tradition of bloody revenge is still common in the gorge. One of the refugees, Idris Alkhanishvili, who lives in constant danger, applied to the Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation to grant him with accommodation in different place. However the ministry did not assist him. “Five years ago my brother killed local resident Imedashvili and left the gorge. Little time ago, some reliable people informed me that relatives of the murdered person were hunting on me to take revenge. Consequently I applied to the Ministry to resettle me to another place but nobody pays attention to me. They have not offered me any other residential area at all. I am totally isolated. I cannot leave home alone because they can kill me anytime,” said Alkhanishvili, father of five children.

Officials from the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation categorically deny the accusations of Chechen refugees. Irakli Kokaia, the head of the Department for Refugees and Repatriation, states that they have offered refugees alternative accommodations in various regions of Georgia, for example in Tsalka. But refugees refuse to resettle anywhere else except Tbilisi. “They want only Tbilisi… We have 300 thousand IDPs and cannot find place for Chechen refugees in the capital at all,” said Kokaia.

Chechen refugees residing in the Pankisi Gorge doubt that after the UN Food Program finishes, their hard social conditions will aggravate as well as criminal and living conditions. Unless the Ministry restores their status, they are going to hold protest demonstrations in front of the Ministry in Tbilisi.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti