Residents of Chechnya complained about being denied entry to Georgia.
For several days, Chechens have been at Tbilisi airport, who were not allowed to enter Georgia to proceed to Russia through the land border. They are cut off from communication and are held in a prison-like facility until their return flights to the countries they arrived from.
"Caucasian Knot" reported that Georgian border guards continue to deny entry to the country for natives of Chechnya without explaining the reasons, with special attention paid to place of birth, said commenters on Instagram*. Some of them reported receiving refusals five or more times. The refusals to enter Georgia are based on reasons concerning specific individuals, while information about mass refusals for natives of Chechnya and other regions of the North Caucasus is exaggerated, suggested participants in discussions on Facebook*.
Georgian border guards have been denying entry to natives of the North Caucasus for many years without explanation. Some received two or even three refusals, residents of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia told "Caucasian Knot" in June 2022. In May 2023, former correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" Zhalaudi Geriyev received another refusal to enter Georgia - he linked this practice to discrimination based on origin, noting that the border guard paid attention to the information about his place of birth in his passport.
For several days, several Chechens who decided to travel to Russia through Tbilisi have been held at Tbilisi airport, one of the detained told the correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" on condition of anonymity.
"Two of us arrived on October 13 from Milan, and one on October 15 from Antalya. We wanted to reach the Russian-Georgian border by land transport, but we were detained at Tbilisi airport to wait for return flights of the Turkish and Italian airlines - until October 18 and 19, respectively. However, the reasons for the detention were not announced to us," he noted.
In the notification of refusal of entry to Georgia for one of the Chechens (a copy is available to "Caucasian Knot"), the reason for the refusal was vaguely stated as "other cases provided for by the legislation of Georgia."
The detained had their phones confiscated immediately - they managed to hide only one, and therefore the interlocutor could only communicate with the correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" through text messages. According to him, they are held in a prison-like cell at the airport. As proof, he even sent a short video showing the cell.
"There are also people from Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, they were not allowed on the flight. All those who were not allowed into the country are Muslims," he noted.
The detained also complained that food is brought to them very late. "We ask for food from eight in the morning, but it is brought after lunch," he noted.
The issue of medical assistance was not raised. "Medicines and medical examinations were not provided, as we did not ask, and they did not
offer," the man concluded.