People Complaining about Lines on the Red Bridge

The stream of people at the border of Georgia-Azerbaijan seldom decreases. The point dyed green receives and sends thousands of citizens from Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that many talk about the radically improved situation at the border points, the passengers are still experiencing problems at the Red Bridge. “Inside, where the people heading to Azerbaijani go through the checkpoint, there are two computers. Both of them are working but only one computer is occupied. Because of this, the line of citizens is waiting inside. The space is not enough there and we can’t breathe. If a citizen with a child is in the line, she’s given turn to save her from fainting. The rest of us continue waiting. They see so many people transfer, can’t they put more than one official there?!” – says Mailov, who’s going to Baku with his family.

www.humanrights.ge asked the border-guards to let us see the place of the registration and checkpoint of citizens. Our request was denied by the shift chief. We were told that we can go in only based on the preliminary agreement given permission from the “highest chief.”

Then we continued talking with the citizens. The main thing they protested was the lines in the checkpoint. Besides, they touched the problem of rubbish accumulated on the Red Bridge. “The border guard welcomes the guest after his/her passport is checked. Then that guest comes out and sees this rubbish. The place, which knows how to welcome the guest, doesn’t know how to build, dye and regulate the work of officials, so not to have waste-bin right here?!” – says Eljan Gasimov. On the Red Bridge, the remains of polietinel and watermelon with street dogs meet the guests at the border. Next to the checkpoint there’s a small counter wrapped in cellophane where churchkhelas are sold and the taxi drivers are offered the coffee. Their checking takes a lot of time. We, the citizens, are not allowed to carry anything on the border. I’m 45 years old. I live hereby, in the village Muganlo. I can’t harvest anything since we don’t have the irrigation water. I have a family to take care of. Why can’t I carry thing with me at the border, trade and earn money?! This is really bad,” – says the resident of Muganlo. “Only the central road is reconstructed, the road that leads to here. Look left and you’ll see what kind of a road our village has. For 23 years we’ve been promised normal road and irrigation system, but nobody does anything,” – adds the resident and asks us to visit their village and personally see how they live.

The number of people coming into the territory of Georgia increases on the Red Bridge. The border-guard hurries to check passports of one after another and let them go. We are advised to talk to passengers coming from Baku. “As them how long they waited at their border. It doesn’t happen here,” – says the border guard. Soon, when the hymn of Georgia plays, he says that it’s time for shift change, but he won’t miss the opportunity to comment on our words about his gun: “My darlings, you obviously are not aware of guns. This is not the old, but American automatic gun.”

We tried to receive the official answer on how many officials are working on the registration and checking of citizens at Red Bridge. We contacted the border police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which redirected us to the patrol police standing in the so-called “road cross.” We didn’t receive any information from them.