Refugees from Ukraine report about reception in Tbilisi

Refugees from Ukraine are accommodated in hotels in Georgia and do not experience any problems with housing, but they are worried about material difficulties and uncertainty about the timing of their return to their homeland.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Georgia hosts actions in support of Ukraine. On March 29, trade union activists of Georgia held a rally in front of the parliament building. They expressed solidarity with the people of Ukraine and spoke in favour of European integration.

Inna Kurbanova, a refugee from Poltava, has told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent that her family restricts itself in many ways, allocating funds mainly for the child’s food. According to the woman, the family cannot calculate the available funds, because they do not know how long they will stay in Georgia. “We got out of Ukraine with great difficulty: we were travelling to the border in a train in which we were standing for more than 20 hours. There was no place not only to sit down, but even to turn around. Our child was sleeping on a suitcase. We spent the first several days upon our arrival in Georgia with distant relatives of my husband in Telavi. Then we moved to Tbilisi to find a job here, but my husband cannot find one,” Inna Kurbanova told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

According to the woman’s story, the hotel where her family members live together with other refugees from Ukraine was paid for by the Tbilisi City Mayoralty until April 19. After that, they are to check out from the hotel, but they have nowhere to leave.

The Lutsky family arrived in Georgia from Mariupol in their own car through the territory of Russia. They went to Tbilisi at random, but at the entrance to the capital they stopped near a shopping centre, where strangers helped them find housing. “We got help from a young woman, a refugee from Abkhazia. She created a group on a social network, and people immediately responded and sheltered us. Now we live in a hotel, we are provided with food. We have no financial problems either, but we want to find a job to get a stable income. We would like to stay here, as our city does not exist anymore. If it starts to be restored, then we will return,” Lutsky said.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 1, 2022 at 07:10 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.