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“Status” of Dashgin Agararli and Adam Esmurziev

December 30, 2015
 
Nona Mtchedlishvili, Radio Liberty

For the eradication of the human rights abuse and discrimination of aliens in Georgia Human Rights Center calls on the Parliament and Government of Georgia to get interested in the legal status of aliens and to amend national law and practice in this regard. The Center addressed to the Parliament and the Government with regard to the declined applications of Dashgin Agararli, member of the Azerbaijani opposition political party Musavat and of Adam Esmurziev, Russian citizen and ethnic Ingush, who could not get the status for years. Human Rights Center believes the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation made ungrounded decisions about their applications.

Dashgin Agararli said he was persecuted by the Azerbaijani authority because of his political views and active criticism of the authority for years. In 2013, Azerbaijani authority blamed him, like many other political activists, for tax evasion though he did not work in the private sector by that time at all. In 2014 Dashgin Agararli arrived in Georgia from Turkey and he was arrested at the border as a sought by the international police. After 6-month imprisonment, in March 2014 Dashgin Agararli applied to the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation for refugee status for himself and his son. The Ministry dragged out review of his application and based on October 30, 2015 decision Dasgin Agararli and his son were refused to get the status. Representatives of Human Rights Center state the decision of the ministry does not contain verification part. On the one hand, the decision states that if Mr. Agararli returns to Azerbaijan he might be subjected to political persecution but on the other hand the Ministry denies him to grant refugee status in Georgia. Dashgin Agagararli does not exclude that the Government of Georgia considers his application in terms of political expediency. 

“I think first of all we should pay attention to the decision of the Ministry of Refugees. They consider my case as absolutely political but do not grant asylum to me because of the security and public interests. Of course my case requires political decision: they are neighboring countries, they cooperate and discuss many issues. I do not exclude that my case is one their agenda during negotiations. I do not wish to hinder relations between our countries. I believe they do not grant asylum to me because of this reason though I expected to get it.”

Dashgin Agararli hopes the court will make just decision and he and his son will at least get security guarantees in Georgia. With the support of Human Rights Center, Dashgin Agararli appealed the decision of the Ministry; the trial will be held on December 25. 

As for Adam Esmurziev, he is citizen of Russia and ethnic Ingush. He first applied for refugee status to the Ministry of Refugees of Georgia in 2011 and they refused. The applicant appealed the Ministry’s decision at the court. On November 13, 2013 the Tbilisi City Court partly satisfied Adam Esmurziev’s claim and ordered the Ministry to issue new individual administrative law act within the estimated period of time after substantial processing and evaluation of the suitor’s application. After several interviews, on September 2, 2015 the Ministry again considered it was unreasonable to grant refugee or humanitarian status to Esmurziev. 

“I am not going to leave this country now and in future either. I want to bring my four sons here from Ingushetia. I am not going anywhere; please give me refugee status. It is document, simple paper. Please let me live where I wish. I am asking for the refugee status.”

Lawyer Tamar Avaliani said that one of the reasons of the negative answer to Adam Esmurziev was allegation that if he returns to Russia nobody will violate his rights that is absolutely absurd:

“Adam Esmurziev participated in Russian-Chechen war, who fought for independence and he is not acceptable person in Russia. I provided the Ministry with many arguments including the reports of international organizations on killing of North Caucasus people in Russia. The Ministry made absolutely absurd and inadequate clarification on its refusal claiming that human rights are not breached in Russia and that the applicant will not be subjected to torture or oppression if he returns to Russia.”

The lawyer states the Ministry should have considered the fact that Adam Esmurziev has converted into Christianity and married a Georgian woman. Human Rights Center appealed the decision of the Ministry of Refugees at the court. Head of the department for accommodation issues at the Ministry Irakli lomidze was concerned with the statement of Human Rights Center. He states that blaming the Ministry in making ungrounded decisions about Adam Esmurziev and Dashgin Agararli’s cases prove bias of Human Rights Center. As for the verification of the alleged decision:

“The situation is quite simple with regard to Adam Esmurziev. There were two arguments in the application – one about his participation in the Chechen war and second about his converting into Christianity; he claimed for these two reasons he would face threat in Russia. We studied both arguments in details and could not verify his participation in the military operations; besides that, Russia is not Islamist country and there is no problem about his religion there. As for Azerbaijani citizen, it was concluded that he may really be subjected to persecution on political grounds.”

In accordance to Irakli Lomidze, when processing Dashgin Agararli’s case, it was concluded that his presence in Georgia may damage state interests and for that reason the Ministry refused him to grant status. Lomidze protested Human Rights Center’s “address about the problems of aliens to get refugee/humanitarian statuses in Georgia” and stated that index for granting status to aliens in Georgia for the past two years is higher than in EU member states and it reached 67%.

 

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