Ukrainian refugees in Georgia leaving hotels - authorities no longer providing housing
Ukrainian refugees in Georgia
Refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine are leaving the hotels in Georgia where they have hitherto been accomodated. According to the Tbilisi Mayor’s Office, the program to provide housing and food to Ukrainian citizens living in Tbilisi has been completed. For the purpose, 14 million lari (about $4.9 million) was spent from the city budget.
According to the authorities, on July 15 this year, by decision of the Georgian government, a program of social and economic support for Ukrainians living in Georgia was launched, under which 300 lari (about $105) would be allocated per family and 45 lari ($16) per person per month.
“For Ukrainian citizens there is still free public transport, municipal kindergartens, schools of arts and sports,” the mayor’s offices of Tbilisi and Batumi report.
Ukrainians say that renting an apartment in Georgia for 300 lari is almost impossible.
The founder of the Droa party, Elena Khoshtaria, reacted to the end of the government’s housing program by calling on society and the business sector to help refugees.
“We spent the whole day in places where these people [Ukrainians] are being driven out. There were 2,300 of them, about 1,000 of them left on their own. In fact, we expelled them from Georgia during the war. Now there are about 1000 left. We are taking 21 families out of Gonio-Kobuleti. According to current data, 30 families have been evicted from different hotels in Tbilisi, and we have to redistribute them to different hotels or host families. Then we will have a complete picture of how many people need basic assistance,” Khoshtaria said at a briefing.
It should be noted that fewer Ukrainians entered Georgia in June than in the same period of 2021 — in June, 19,585 Ukrainian citizens crossed the Georgian border, and compared to June last year, the number of Ukrainian citizens entering Georgia decreased by 11%.
At the same time, the number of Russian citizens who crossed the Georgian border in June increased by 340% – more than 135,000 Russians entered Georgia in June.
Ukrainian refugees in Georgia
