#3 January/february, 2012

Georgia. That is a large caseload and we need to support the efforts of the Government in help- STATISTICS ing these people. We also discussed the successful integration In result of Russian Occupation, more of refugees of the Chechen ethnicity from the than half million persons are forcefully Russian Federation in Pankisi Valley, which in displaced many ways can be seen as an exemplary model. has offered them citizenship, many •• Half of them are emigrants have undergone the naturalization process and more will do it. There is also an innovative way •• 264, 025 Internally Displaced of cooperating with UNDP on joint transition Persons: and integration efforts related to refugees. That was seen as a success and we actually look at how we can replicate this model in other coun- tries. Another very important part of our work in Georgia is the further development of the asy- INTERVIEW WITH MR. DANIEL lum system. The importance of this activity is ENDRES, DIRECTOR OF THE likely to increase in the future, since Georgia lies in a geopolitically fragile area. UNHCR BUREAU FOR EUROPE Q: Why was it so important for Georgia to ac- DURING HIS VISIT TO cede to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Sta- GEORGIA tus of Stateless Persons? A: The accession to the 1954 Convention Relat- From 15 – 20 January, 2012, Mr. Daniel Endres, ing to the Status of Stateless Persons is impor- Refugees according to their Director of the UNHCR Bureau for Europe tant in many ways. The break-up of the former visited Georgia upon the invitation by Mr. Soviet Union has led to an exceptionally large countries of origin 465 Koba Subeliani, the Minister of Internally Dis- number of people who had either uncertain placed Persons from the Occupied Territories, status or had lost their nationality. Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia. Q: Economic crisis and the global UN budget The Director of the UNHCR Bureau for Europe cut: how does it influence UNHCR globally and visited Justice House in , Customs Of- in Georgia? fice on the border with Turkey, as well as new All these crises (Iraq, Afghanistan, Cote settlements for IDPs in Batumi and . He d’Ivoire, North Africa and the Middle East ) aslo visited Abhkazia, Georgian occupied ter- required additional resources at a time of a ritory. global economic crisis. As an organization we Question: What is the reason of your visit to were compelled to reduce some of the existing Georgia? IDP operations and this also affected the ini- Answer: This is my very first visit to Georgia tial budget for UNHCR’s operations in Georgia as the Director of the UNHCR Bureau for Eu- for 2012. At this stage we aim at keeping the rope. Georgia is one of the most important op- present level of our activities Georgia and will Asylum seekers according to erations of the Bureau and since we had some continue to work closely with our key donors. their countries of origin 79 budgetary changes last year, it was important Q: How would you evaluate the work of the Gov- for me to see how we can maintain the momen- ernment of Georgia in relation to refugees and tum and what opportunities there are to keep IDPs? supporting this operation, what the key-chal- A: We are witnessing an exceptional engage- lenges are and how we can address the needs of ment by the Government of Georgia with re- the people who require our support. gard to trying to find at least temporary solu- Q: You had many meetings with the representa- tions for the IDP population. Over the last tives of the Government of Georgia. Can you three years the Government started a very large please tell what issues were discussed? shelter and housing programmes, which ena- A: We had extensive discussions with the Gov- bled more than 28,000 thousand families to ob- ernment and we focused very much on the tain an adequate housing. This is a remarkable key-challenge which is still the large number of achievement. It is now important that these ef- Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The Gov- forts will continue. ernment speaks of about 270,000 IDPs living in UNHCR Georgia

Printed with financial support of the Contact Information: “Capacity Development Programme for Georgia, 0177 the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Tamarashvili 15a Territories, Accommodation and e-mail: [email protected] This project is funded by Refugees of Georgia” the European Union DIGEST

residents moved from dire conditions into the comfortable apartments. The MRA organised IDP transportation process as well. The surrounding territory has also been

rehabilitated: asphalt, street lights and gasification, as well as irrigation and wa- ter systems; trees have been planted and a playground arranged for the children. has not neglected anyone and the IDPs President of Georgia, Minister of IDPs and TAMARISI – IDP NEW program we are implementing is the most other member of Government visited the SETTLEMENT IN BATUMI successful one in the world. These are not new neighborhood in Tskaltubo, toured my words, nor is it bragging. This is what around the area and spoke with the local 22 apartment buildings in the new neigh- the international organizations admit“- residents. The Head of State visited the borhood what is covered 8 Ha, which were stated Mikheil Saakashvili. first residents of the settlement. President built for 3,000 IDPs. Within the frame- The project was carried out by Municipal focused on the development of Re- work of the project, public services and Development Fund (MDF) of the Minis- gion and noted that rehabilitation of infra- amenities have also been developed on try of Infrastructure and Regional Devel- structure will assist in developing a better the surrounding area: asphalt cover, gasi- opment under Georgia and EU agreement. fication, street lights, water, irrigation sys- quality of life, creating jobs, and attracting tems, trees, and playgrounds for children. tourists. On the first floor of the buildings there THE IDP NEW The project was implemented within the are 42 (85 sq.m.) commercial area, which NEIGHBORHOOD IN framework of the agreement between gives IDPs opportunity to get employed. TSKALTUBO Georgia and the EU and implemented by the Municipal Development Fund of the Ministry of Regional Development and The relocation process of IDPs in new- Infrastructure of Georgia. built apartments in Tskaltubo was com- The process of durable housing solution of pleted. 352-flat, 10 buildings were built for IDPs is ongoing to cover the needs of those IDPs from , Georgia. The new still living in dire conditions.

IDPs living in dire conditions in Tskaltubo, , and other regions were resettled in these 608 appartments by the Ministry of Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Geor- gia (MRA). The Ministry organised IDP transportation process as well. The President of Georgia, Minister of the Internally Displaced Persons from the Oc- cupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia and other officials visited the new settlement. They went over nearby territory and congratulated the IDPs on new houses. “The most important thing is that the state DIGEST international projects The survey covered a total of 2,075 PILOT MONITORING OF FOOD family households. Households for Targeted Initiative for Georgia SECURITY AND LIVELIHOOD interview were selected based on sys- AMONG IDPS tematic random sampling from the Ministry’s database. A total of 208 UN World Food Programme (WFP), households were interviewed. through the German Quality Im- The major findings of the monitoring provement Grant (GQIG), helped the revealed the high level of education Ministry of Internally Displaced Per- among IDPs, which represents a major sons (IDPs) from the Occupied Terri- asset to improve their socio-economic tories, Accommodation and Refugees conditions, in spite of their limited of Georgia establish a food security physical and financial assets. The fol- 342 returning migrants were served by the monitoring system among IDPs. lowing were observed: “mobility centre” within the Ministry in • good access to public transport, the framework of EU funded project “tar- which facilitates contact with pub- geted initiative for Georgia” during 2011. lic offices, search for employment, Assistances provided by the “Mobility training opportunities, sale of pro- Centre”: duce, etc.; • precarious level of employment situation with a high rate of un- employment; • relatively good food consumption, with a small proportion of house- holds recording poor consump- tion; and • limited livelihood assistance that reaches only a small proportion of IDP households. 72 beneficiaries were given recommenda- The pilot study recommended regu- tion on employment in the Job Counseling lar monitoring of IDP livelihoods and and Placement center. food security on an expanded scale, to 36 beneficiaries took special training allow for a better coverage in terms of courses in order to improve skills and location and diversity. Other recom- mendations included: • a need to carefully consider op- The objective of introducing periodic tions that build on opportunities monitoring of livelihoods and food se- arising from the good education curity is to provide basic information levels of many IDPs, while plan- on changes over time in livelihood as- ning a strategy for livelihood sup- sets (educational status, financial and port; physical assets, access to public trans- • necessity of combining improved port), household expenditures, food physical and financial assets with consumption and livelihood assistance more emphasis placed on product received from government, interna development and marketing in or- qualifications. der to boost current income levels, 60 beneficiaries took “business training” tional organisations and NGOs. particularly from agriculture; Pilot study was conducted during • a more systematic and realistic ap- September-December 2011. An in- proach to identify real opportuni- ternational consultant hired by WFP, ties before investing in profession- provided support to the formulation al or vocational trainings. of the monitoring concept, the de- sign and methodology for the house- Within its capacity development and hold survey, data analysis and report hand-over strategy, WFP plans to ex- preparation and MRA staff training. pand partnership and tailor-made sup- Regional staff of the Ministry ensured port to strengthen coordination role of data collection and processing. the Ministry, to build its capacity on courses for starting up micro business. The pilot study covered four pur- vulnerability assessment and response, Emergency medical aid has been provided posively selected clusters of IDPs in strategy development and implemen- to 8 beneficiaries Gori District, Region and tation of context-based interventions. 4 beneficiaries have been provided with Zugdidi District, Samegrelo Region. temporary shelter. The clusters were selected to allow Electronic version of the report (in 23 micro business in poultry raising, for monitoring the situation of new Georgian and English) is available at sheep breeding, bee-keeping, wine-mak- caseload IDPs (Gori) and old caseload www.mra.gov.ge under Electronic ing, swine breeding, cattle breeding, trade IDPs (Zugdidi) in both urban and ru- Library on main page. and education sectors have been financed ral settings. by the Centre with micro grants. DIGEST

KOBA SUBELIANI VISITS ISRAEL

During the visit Minister met with the President of Georgian-Jewish Congress, Mr. Gabriel Mirilashvili and other mem- bers of the Congress in Tel Aviv. The Min- ister also visited the Georgian Cultural Center Ashdod construction, which will provide with opportunity to study Geor- gian language and history.

Official meeting was held with Mrs. Sofa Landver, the Minister of Immigrants Ab- The Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommo- sorption of Israel. Parties presented the dation and Refugees of Georgia, Koba Subeliani paid official visit to Israel. In Ashdod, current situation of their countries and Minister met Georgian Jews who moved to Israel from the occupied territories of Geor- discussed the integration projects of repat- gia, Abkhazia and . Meeting was organized by the member of Council of Ash- riates. Sopa Landver shared with Georgian dod, Mr. Moshe Boterashvili. During the meeting with Koba Subeliani, Georgian Jews, representatives the important accumulat- residents of Ashdod expressed willingness to receive citizenship of Georgia. ed experience of Israel.

Frequently Asked Questions

PROCEDURES FOR GRANTING IDP STATUS

According to the paragraph 1 of country, internal conflicts or mass 1. Birth certificate (recommended); article 1 of Law of Georgia on In- violation of human rights or in cas- 2. Georgian national passport (rec- ternally Displaced Persons from es foreseen in paragraph 11of arti- the Occupied Territories of Geor- cle II of this law .” ommended); gia, “Internally displaced person Person should apply the Ministry 3. Certificate of real estate declara- – IDP is the citizen of Georgia or or its territorial body for recogni- tion (recommended); stateless person permanently resid- tion as an IDP and receiving the 4. Property owner ID card; ing in Georgia, who was forced to IDP status. Person should submit 5. Notarize consent of an apart- leave the place of his/her habitual ID card and certificate from per- residence and was displaced within manent place of residence; also, if ment owner; the territory of Georgia as a result available, documents proving that 6. Civil Registry Extract; of threat to his/her or his/her fam- he/she were forced to flee the occu- 7. Marriage certificate (if available); ily member’s life, health or freedom pied territories: 8. Additional papers or/and other due to the aggression of foreign documentation;

Ministry’s HotLine: (+995 32) 243 11 00 working hours: 09:00 - 22:00 (except weekends)

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