South Ossetia expects increased flow of refugees from Georgia

Kazbeg Karsanov, Deputy Minister on Special Matters of South Ossetia, has predicted a possible growth of the inflow of refugees from Georgia. Now South Ossetia has over 50 refugees from Georgia. At the same time, after the start of armed conflict, over 350 persons fled from Georgia to Russia via South Ossetia.

"Under certain forecasts, the flow of Ossetian refugees from Georgia can go up in the near future," Mr Karsanov, who is in charge at the Ministry for migration policy, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The majority of refugees are leaving Georgia for North Ossetia. Basically, they are ethnic Ossetians; there are also mixed Ossetian-Georgian families among them. Many refugees have left Georgia through the Verkhniy Lars (along the Military Georgian Highway, connecting Vladikavkaz with Tbilisi and passing to the east of South Ossetia, - comment of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent); by unconfirmed data, there were more than two thousand persons from the aggravation of the conflict," said Deputy Minister.

Some of the refugees make their way to South Ossetia. They are cared by the Committee for Refugees and the Ministry on Special Matters of the Republic of South Ossetia. "As to the refugees who apply for help to our Committee, recently most of them are young men of army recruiting age, and their families," said Mr Karsanov.

According to these people, Georgian authorities are almost violently forcing young Ossetians into army, and many of them are sent to the areas located in immediate proximity from South-Ossetian borders.

Besides, Ossetian refugees complain of oppressions by the police and nationality-motivated discrimination.

Another problem is the impossibility to send a child to the school, where the Ossetian language is taught. "Currently, they stop teaching the Ossetian and Russian languages in schools of Georgia. In the last week, we have accepted four families with children of school age," the source continued.

According to the deputy minister, recently people are experiencing difficulties with departure from Georgia both to South Ossetia and Russia. "In some cases the respective services of Georgia just took documents away from these people at the border, when it became clear that they were moving here."