IDP family gave one month to the authority

 Lado Bitchashvili, Shida Kartli 

The IDP family of the Gambashidzes from Eredvi village, who, two weeks ago, illegally broke into one of the flats in the residential building constructed for IDPs in Gori, was evicted by the Ministry of Refugees on July 5. Part of the family members spent night in the street. Their underage children stayed with them till late night.

“Let the entire world see how IDPs are treated in Georgia. The Ministry of IDPs shall see how children live here. We have nowhere to go and the inattention of the Ministry made me break into the flat, which still belongs to the state,” Ketevan Gambashidze said when she was in the street together with underage children. 

Gori mayor Konstantine Tavzarashvili met the IDP family in the street and offered them accommodation for several days but they refused. However, on July 6, the IDP family accepted the mayor’s offer. The Gori Municipality City Hall settled the five-member IDP family in one-room flat in the building constructed for homeless people; they will stay there for a month.

“This is accommodation for homeless people. We temporarily settled this family here but afterwards the Ministry will give an accommodation to the family,” Konstantine Tavzarashvili said.

According to the Gambashidzes, in 2011, the government settled them in the former building of the military base in Shaumiani village, Marneuli municipality. The family spent one year there and then returned back to Gori and rented a flat. They rejected the offer of the Ministry to register the flat in Shaumiani as their property because there were unbearable conditions there and requested alternative accommodation. 

“I visited the Ministry of IDPs several times and they know what kind of conditions were in Shaumiani. We requested them to give us an accommodation in Gori; I petitioned the Ministry of IDPs and they replied they no longer had one-room flats. We are five members in the family and is one-room flat enough for us? Afterwards we found out that three-room flats were not distributed in Gori and we broke into one of them as we had no other choice,” Ketevan Gambashidze said.

Representative of the IDP Ministry Berdia Pitskhelauri said the Gambashidzes are registered in Marneuli municipality and cannot get a flat in Gori. He said they needed to have application form filled out to get a flat though the family had not done it either. 

“There are not good living conditions in Shaumiani and in future the Ministry will either improve conditions there or offer alternative accommodations to the inhabitants,” Berdia Pitskhelauri said.

HRC lawyer said the Ministry tries to avoid responsibility and compels the IDPs to violate the law.

“Statements of the representatives of the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories and Accommodation about procedural and bureaucratic issues is attempt to avoid responsibility. In accordance to the Law of Georgia on IDPs, the State and respectively the Ministry are authorized to satisfy IDP families with adequate and honorable living conditions within short time period. Their accommodations shall meet safety and sanitary standards,” HRC Shida Kartli office lawyer Aleksi Merebashvili said. 

IDP Ketevan Gambashidze gave one month to the Government and the Ministry of IDPs to satisfy them with a flat; otherwise she intends to set up a tent in front of the newly constructed residential buildings for IDPs.