The resettlement of IDPs living in dire conditions still remains problematic. According to the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, 92,079 families displaced from the occupied territories – 286,442 internally displaced persons in total – are registered in Georgia. Out of this, the state has provided accommodation for up to 50,000 displaced families.

According to LEPL Agency for IDPs, Eco-migrants, and Livelihood Provision, up to 23,000 internally displaced families have received accommodation as part of various programs since 2013. According to its report of 2019, 2,900 families were provided with accommodation. And according to its report of 2020-2021, up to 7,000 families were provided with residential spaces.  

Despite the fact that the rate of provision of IDPs with accommodation has increased in recent years, tens of thousands of families are still awaiting accommodation and some of them are living in buildings that pose an increased threat to their life and health. Their resettlement and allocation of more budget funds for this purpose should be a priority for the government.   

In the process of provision of residential spaces, priority should be given to people living in buildings that pose an increased threat to life and health, but there are no precise statistics on how many families live in such buildings, because not all IDP accommodation facilities have been studied. At the same time, it is clear that in some buildings that pose a threat to life, nothing has really changed for years, despite the fact that the problems of IDPs living in these buildings are actively covered by the media. The latest example of this is related to the internally displaced families living in the former sanatorium Kartli in Tbilisi, whose unbearable conditions are evident even without an assessment report. On January 17, IDPs living in Kartli made a preliminary announcement about a hunger strike with the aim of receiving residential spaces from the state, which was preceded by a tragic incident – a suicide – the day before. 

The fact that a part of IDPs still remains in buildings dangerous for their life and health indicates that the process of resettlement has been mismanaged for years.

The Annual Report of the Public Defender of Georgia of 2018 notes that the reporting period revealed an inconsistent approach to the resettlement of IDPs from the so-called collapsing buildings. The same report says that some buildings that were closed were in better condition than those that were not closed and accommodated IDPs. The 2019 Report of the Public Defender says that in 2019 the number of families resettled from buildings posing an increased threat to life decreased by 92 compared with 2018. In 2019, 245 families were resettled in total; and the situation of the remaining compact settlement facilities gradually gets aggravated. The 2020 Report of the Public Defender notes that in 2020, unlike the previous years, the highest number of IDPs – 711 families – received new homes. However, the number of buildings posing an increased threat to life and health remains high. Seventy-one facilities have been assessed to be posing an increased threat to life and health, although their number may be higher, as not all the facilities have been assessed. 

Work for the improvement of the IDPs’ living conditions is also performed by the Ministry of IDPs of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia. At the end of last year, the State Audit Office conducted an audit of this Ministry’s Program for Ensuring the Conduct of Renovation and Restoration Works at IDP Accommodation Facilities. According to the audit report, the said program was implemented with violations and deficiencies from the stage of planning to implementation, including public procurements. The report deals with such grave violations as violations in the selection of bidders in the electronic tender, improperly conducted renovation works at the IDP accommodation facilities, and misspending of budget funds.

Up until 2018, the provision of IDPs with accommodation was carried out by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation, and Refugees. According to an article of FactCheck, in the years 2013-2018, GEL 353m was spent from the budget on the provision of accommodation for IDPs; accordingly, an average of GEL 59m was spent annually. From 2019, the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation, and Refugees was abolished. The task of improving the living conditions of IDPs living at accommodation facilities, which also includes the transfer and legalization of residential spaces, was given to the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs, while the Ministry of Infrastructure was made responsible for the construction of new apartment buildings for IDPs. According to the State Budgets of 2019-2021, GEL 218m was spent on the improvement of IDPs’ living conditions, although the documents do not separately indicate the amounts spent on the transfer of residential spaces. The Ministry of Infrastructure spent GEL 70m on the construction of apartment buildings in 2019. In 2020-2022, the amounts allocated for the construction of apartment buildings were curtailed considerably.    

In the years 2013-2021, a total of GEL 693m was spent on the resettlement of IDPs and improvement of their living conditions, although hundreds of families are still living in buildings that pose an increased threat to their life and health.

Source of data: The State Budget of Georgia

Due to the fact that a part of the IDPs still live in buildings that pose an increased threat to life and health:

• It should be a priority for the government to close all such buildings within a short time frame and to resettle the IDPs to a safe place;
• It is important to make sure that risks of corruption are ensured as much as possible in this process and the decisions are made and enforced with a high standard of transparency.