Round Table about the residence issues of the repatriate Meskhs

Nino Kimadze

On July 13, representatives of Human Rights House Tbilisi held a round table about the residence issues of the repatriate Meskhs. Human Rights House Tbilisi provides a legal assistance to Junus Aripov and Dilara Aripova, whose claim for the residence, submitted to the court by the human rights’ defenders, was not upheld. 

According to the chair of the board of Human Rights House Tbilisi, Nino Elbakidze, the repatriate Meskhs have social problems as well as legal. 

According to the chair of the board, there is a legislative flaw and the court practice is also powerless. Elbakidze thinks that practically, there is no court decision that might support these people. 

As the chair of Samtskhe-Javakheti regional association “Tolerant” Tsira MEskhishvili says, factually, there is no repatriation process in Georgia. As she stated, the repatriation is a difficult and long process. 

According to the information of the association “Tolerant”, 140 repatriate Meskhs who live in Georgia, have the residence issues, 52 out of them live in Samtkshe-Javakheti. 

Provided for by the report of the Public Defender, according to the taken international obligations, the process of repatriation should have ended until 2012, however the number of status seekers is still high. There are more than 5000 applications requesting the status of repatriate in the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons.

The Public Defender’s Office thinks that there should be specific terms for the process of repatriation, which would mitigate the problem.