Political analysts blame Georgian authorities for threat to visa-free travels

During the year of visa-free regime, over 196,000 citizens of Georgia visited the Schengen zone, Nino Djvakhadze, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, said on March 27.

Meanwhile, she has added that Germany and France are considering, at their domestic level, suspension of the visa-free regime for Georgia, because of increase in crimes involving Georgian citizens.

Mamuka Zhgenti, an expert of the NGO named "Georgian Institute of European Values", has linked this crime increase, among other things, with the fact that Georgian authorities were late to hold an information campaign about the rules of staying in the EU countries: it was launched only after the start of the visa-free regime and was held ineffectively.

According to the expert, he met many citizens of Georgia who had no necessary information about the rules of staying in the EU countries. In particular, they left for the EU in search of work, and already there found out that a special visa is needed for this purpose.

"I actually met a lot of people who borrowed money for tickets to come here in search of work, and already here they find themselves in a complicated situation – either to go back with debts or try to survive somehow, that is, by thefts or illegal activities," Mr Zhgenti has concluded.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.