Georgia: evicted refugees to go to court for compensations

Some refugee families, evicted from the hotel "Abkhazia" in Tbilisi, are filing lawsuits with demand of monetary compensations. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Marina Meshvildishvili, the leader of the coalition of NGOs "Tskhinvali of the Future", who had also lived in the "Abkhazia".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that refugees from Tskhinvali had been living in the "Abkhazia" since early 1990s. Recently they were evicted from the hotel, as it was purchased by a private person.

According to Ms Meshvildishvili, about ten refugee families who had lived in the Tbilisi hotel "Abkhazia" will get no monetary compensation – they may claim housing facilities only. The reason is that the Ministry of Georgia for Refugees' Matters and Accommodation has artificially united relatives into families; besides, the Ministry stopped registering young families after marriage.

According to her story, refuges face a choice – either monetary compensation of 10,000 US dollars or a flat. However, most of the refugees from the "Abkhazia" plan to take money, as they are afraid of being accommodated into one of the three buildings in Rustavi, located near the cement factory.

"Fearing that at distribution of housing by means of drawing they may get a flat in these buildings, refugees prefer to take monetary compensations. However, 10,000 US dollars is not enough even for a one-room flat. Some people buy rooms from other refugees in temporary accommodation centres (TACs); someone is planning to buy a garage in Tbilisi to live in it," said Marina Meshvildishvili.

As reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Nonna Kurdovanidze, an activist of the NGO "Association of Young Lawyers", who conducted monitoring of eviction of refugees from the "Abkhazia", in the morning of August 15 policemen forced several dozens families out of the hotel.

"The Law 'On Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees' forbids any forced eviction of refugees from laces of compact accommodation without a respective court ruling," said Ms Kurdovanidze and noted that her NGO had addressed the Tbilisi City Court demanding to postpone the eviction; however, the Court dismissed the claim of the "Association of Young Lawyers".

She added that in total about 700 persons, about 200 refugee families, had lived in the hotel "Abkhazia"; however as a result of "aggregation" the Ministry's database fixed about 150 families living in the hotel.