Refugees in Georgia, evicted from TACs in Tbilisi, hope for UN's assistance

On August 2 the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Abkhazia and South Ossetia obtained a meeting at the Tbilisi Office of the United Nations. Now they hope that the UN will listen to their demands to stop their eviction from the temporary accommodation centres (TACs) in Tbilisi. According to experts, the demand to draw the attention of the Georgian UN office to the refugees' problem is well-timed.

"We demand that the UN drew its attention to the way we are treated by the Ministry for Internally Displacement Persons, Resettlement and Refugees," Manuchar Sigua, the head of the Public movement of refugees, told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to him, the refugees lodged a petition in which they demanded a meeting with the UN officials in Georgia. "We were told that the UN Ambassador was not in place; however, he would certainly meet with us and the organization was ready for a dialogue on prevention violation of the refugees' rights in Georgia. Perhaps, a result of this dialogue will still be achieved, and the refugees will attain justice that they expect," said Manuchar Sigua.

According to Lasha Chkhartishvili, a representative of the Conservative Party of Georgia, the UN should strengthen its participation in the issue of relations between authorities and refugees. He emphasizes that sometimes people believe that the UN representatives support ironfisted methods of the government. "Of course, I personally believe that it is not true; however, due to inactivity, such doubts occur among the refugees," Lasha Chkhartishvili told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The majority of the action participants were refugees from Abkhazia; however, among them there were also refugees from South Ossetia who fled their homeland during the events of August 2008. Zaira Baraneli, one of them, says that the state has not yet paid a compensation amounting to 10 thousand dollars to many refugees from South Ossetia.

David Malazoniya, one of the action participants, a refugee from Abkhazia, says that the Ministry for Internally Displacement Persons, Resettlement and Refugees evicted 17 families from the kindergarten No. 204, although the Mayoralty of Tbilisi allowed transferring the building into the ownership of the evicted people.

In response to the protests the Ministry for Internally Displacement Persons, Resettlement and Refugees makes statements that the evicted refugees are provided with houses in several rural districts of Georgia. However, the evicted refugees claim that they would not be able to find a job in the proposed locations of residence.