Georgian authorities explain refusal to allow entry from Russia to Ukrainian citizens

Ukrainian citizens expelled from Russia have been denied entry to Georgia due to their criminal past and invalid documents, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.

As reported by "Kavkazsky Uzel", by July 16, 90 Ukrainian citizens were waiting to enter Georgia after being expelled from Russia. They are forced to live in a room without utilities in unsanitary conditions. Only a volunteer organization provides them with food, water, and medicine.

Dozens of people who arrived from Russia and identified themselves as citizens of Ukraine have been denied entry to Georgia due to invalid documents and a criminal past, the Georgian Interior Ministry said today.

According to the agency, about 80 people who tried to cross the border by presenting “invalid documents” and claiming to be citizens of Ukraine remain in the neutral zone at the Dariali border checkpoint today, writes Novosti-Gruzia.

Most of these people have a serious criminal past

"Most of these people have a serious criminal past, and they have been repeatedly convicted of serious or especially serious crimes, which is confirmed certificates of release from penitentiary institutions. At the same time, they themselves state that they served their sentences for the crimes they committed in prisons in eastern Ukraine. Accordingly, based on the interests of state security, they were not allowed to enter the country," the publication quotes the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs also stated that the Georgian side offered the Ukrainian authorities several options for the safe evacuation of these people - by air or sea - but no decision has yet been made.

"Nevertheless, active joint consultations are underway to agree on a mechanism for the safe return of these persons to their homeland, including by air. We hope that the Ukrainian side will promptly make a decision," the publication quotes the statement.

Recall that in October 2023, seven Ukrainian citizens were forced to spend in the buffer zone on Russian-Georgian border for more than two weeks. Previously, they served their sentences in the colonies of Kherson; after their release, they were brought to the deportation center in Volgograd and issued orders banning entry into Russia. While the Georgian authorities refused to let them into the country, the volunteers supplied the Ukrainians with food and essential items.

At the end of November of the same year, it became known that the Georgian authorities again refused to let former Ukrainian prisoners into the country. Volunteers managed to get eight Ukrainians through, but another eight people, who had spent more than two weeks at the checkpoint by that time, remained waiting at the border.

In December 2023, the non-governmental organization "Center for Social Justice" asked the Constitutional Court of Georgia to repeal the provision of the law "On the Legal Status of Foreigners" as discriminatory. Arbitrary refusals of entry to Georgia for foreigners violate the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution, human rights activists said.