Chechens Continue Hunger Strike

Chechens Continue Hunger Strik

For more than a week Chechen refugees living in Georgia have been on a hunger strike in front of the UNHCR building in Tbilisi. The participants do not intend to stop the hunger strike, and they demand that the UNHCR fulfill their requirements. The refugees have demanded that 500 Chechen refugee families be taken to a third country, or that their living conditions in Georgia be improved.

Yesterday the health conditions of five Chechen women participating in the strike deteriorated to the point that they had to be taken to the hospital.

According to the refugees, the administration of the UNHCR absolutely ignores them and refuses to implement any of their requests. According to one of the women, when she went up to the UNHCR office to tell them about all of the problems that Chechen people encounter in Georgia, one staff member of the UNHCR would not even listen to her, and turned her out of the office.