Deportations of illegal Georgian migrants from Turkey will not affect relations

The increasingly frequent deportation of Georgian citizens illegally in Turkey raised some questions about Georgian–Turkish relations. Officials in Georgia claim that the deportations do not affect Turkish–Georgian relations.

Turkey deported 150 illegal Georgian immigrants after a special raid last week. Another 25 Georgians, mostly women, were deported on November 1 and arrived in Georgia by special bus. Another Georgian woman is being detained in Turkey where she and her son are charged with hooliganism and theft.

“These deportations do not infer that the official Turkish position towards Georgia has changed,” Georgia’s Vice Consul to Turkey, Gela Japaridze, said. The Vice-Consul also stated that not only Georgian citizens were deported from Turkey, and that “the deportations are connected with raids carried out by Turkish law enforcement officers against those individuals and companies who were illegally employing foreigners." The main accent was on companies and not on foreigners. Criminal cases have been brought against nearly 40 companies, and foreigners who were employed by them were deported.”

Japaridze stated that “80 Georgian citizens came back into the country on October 27, the following day, 65, and on October 29, 25 returned. According to our information they have already crossed the border and the Turkish authorities ensured they could collect their possessions and documents.” The number of illegal migrants seeking work in Turkey has increased due to hard economic conditions in Georgia.

A representative of opposition party New Rights, Manana Nachkebia shared the Georgian authorities' attitude and said that the deportation of Georgian citizens should not be connected with relations between the two countries. The situation is not a surprise when considering the economic reality of the world today. She told The Messenger that even European states wish to “clean their territories from foreigners, especially illegal foreigners, in order to employ their own citizens more."