Residents of Northern Caucasus systematically denied entry to Georgia

Without explaining the reasons, Georgian border guards refuse to let natives of Northern Caucasus into Georgia, the residents of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have stated.

A Russian citizen named Mariam and her husband were not allowed to cross the Georgian border, she told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "On June 5, we left Dagestan and crossed the Russian border within an hour. Next, the Georgian border was waiting for us. My husband has Dagestan in his passport as birthplace, I have Ryazan. The Georgian customs officer, having first opened my passport, was not indignant, since he saw Ryazan, but when he opened my husband’s passport, where Dagestan is indicated, his face even changed, the poor guy. As a result, we were sent to office No. 111," said Mariam.

According to her story, this office is always crowded with people. "There were four guys from Chechnya in front of us, they were also waiting. A little later, they brought out all six passports, ours and of these guys; and then everything became clear. They rejected our entry. I burst into tears on emotions, came into the office and asked what kind of discrimination it was; people travel for thousands of kilometres, and you treat them like that, without even explaining the reasons. The customs officer shrugged his shoulders and said that he could do nothing," she said.

Rasul, a native of Chechnya, together with his friend, had been planning a trip to Georgia for a long time. "On June 4, we left. There was a huge queue to enter Georgia. We waited for about 2-3 hours at the office No. 111. They asked routine questions, looked at our passports and told us to wait. Then, they gave back our documents and said that we were denied entry. Attempts to find out the reason were fruitless. They didn't even talk to us," Rasul told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In his opinion, it's difficult to find any logic in actions of Georgian border guards. "While we were waiting, we tried to guess on what principle they were not letting people in. We saw that the vast majority of refusals concerned residents of Northern Caucasus,” he has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 9, 2022 at 09:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.