A Large Family of Eco-Migrants Is Offered to Resettle from Native District

The state is going to leave a family of Davitadzes in the street. There are fourteen members in eco-migrants’ family. Kazakh investors purchased the resort house “Narinji” in the town of Makhinjauri where the family resided. Most part of IDPs and eco-migrants has already been evicted from the building. Only Davitadzes remained there because they did not accept the compensation. However, Kazakh investor has already started deconstruction of the resort house.

The Davitadzes remained homeless as a result of natural disaster in 1989. At that time the government lodged them in the resort house of Narinji. The investors offered IDPs and eco-migrants 7-7 thousand USD as compensation. The Davitadzes did not accept the offer because their family has become larger for the last eighteen years and now they occupy four rooms in the resort house instead of initial one. Dinara Davitadze stated that Czech Company “Energy-Pro Georgia” purchased Adjara Energy Company and they were cut off electricity supply too. “We are leading hard life. They have dismantled the roof of the building. We have repaired it several times but the rain still leaks in. We have stretched cellophanes on the ceiling to stop rain. We have no other way out. They started deconstruction from the other side of the building and soon they will reach our rooms too. So, we will have to leave the place to protect our children from death.”

Aleksandre Davitadze’s family lived in the village of Tsablana in the Khulo District. The landslide destroyed their house and plot there. “Now they tell us to leave this place too. Where should we go? We have nowhere to go. They might think that we can shelter at our relatives but which relative can accept a family with fourteen members? The whole village abandoned the place after landslide. The government gave money to purchase houses only for those families which lost members during the disaster. Officials told me then they would give me the money if somebody died in our family,” said Aleksandre Davitadze. 
There lived 27 families of eco-migrants in the resort-house. Most of them accepted 7 thousand USD as compensation and left the place. “Where should fourteen people go with that money? Our only fault is that the family increased in number. They tell us to go to Kakheti region but you should have some protector to find proper place to live there too,” said Dinara Davitadze.

The government offered alternative accommodation to the family; it is former kitchen on the ground floor of resort house “Kobuleti”. It has glass walls. They advised to dismantle the walls and build new separate rooms in it. Davitadzes could live there for some time. But the head of the family wonders how many destroyed resort houses they should repair.

The Davitadzes have applied to all governmental bodies for help but could not receive any positive reply. “Although everybody is poor in Georgia, nobody is as much impoverished as we are. That’s why we are demanding the money enough to accommodate fourteen people that make four families. However, they did not offer us anything but seven thousand USD. Besides that they advise us to go to Akhmeta District in Kakheti Region. They are trying to get rid of us with similar statements. I do not know how long this situation will last, but I defineitely know that we are right.”

Aleksandre Davitadze is sending similar letters to various governmental bodies; however the replies are the same too. The latter one was from Nino Meskhi, the head of the Public Relation Department within the Georgian State Chancellery, which stated: “We have received your letter and considered it attentively. You have applied to us with similar statements several times. As far as we know the investor who purchased the resort-house “Narinji” paid compensation to inhabitants as well as to your family. As for your demand to public officials to purchase a house for you, we should clarify that Georgia is not a republic and your second ultimatum on having a house only in Batumi, sounds a bit strange. You should buy the house in the district you can afford with the money investor paid you as compensation.”

Emzar Diasamidze, Batumi