"During the pandemic, people with just Georgian citizenship found themselves in the worst situation, as most of them had violated their visa regime," the head of the Georgian Diaspora in the Russian Federation, Davit Tsetskhladze, told Report.ge.
According to Tsetskhladze, the main problem of the Georgians in the conditions of the pandemic was obtaining food, medicine, a place to live, and documents required to return home.
"Since May 12 of last year, we have established the "Compatriot Assistance" headquarters and have declared all the assistance we have provided. This mainly included assistance with products and medicines, as well as assistance to hospitals, as getting to the hospital was a big problem. There were also migration problems as the consulate switched to online mode, and many were unable to obtain information.
We have several categories of compatriots. For example, there are Georgian citizens, Russian citizens, or those who have citizenship of both countries.
In the pandemic conditions, only people with Georgian citizenship found themselves in the worst situation, as most of them had violated their visa regime. They worked mainly in the service sector and worked from month to month, living in rented rooms or apartments.
The consulate was operating in a very busy mode. About 40,000 people returned to Georgia with our help, and most of them were people who worked in the service sector.
One of the biggest problems we encountered in the first period was the transfer of the deceased because the family members did not know how to deal with the issue. We consulted and helped financially," Davit Tsetskhladze told Report.ge.
