Registration of Chechen Refugees Launched in Pankisi

The Georgian Ministry for Refugees and Accommodation, with the support of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), started on August 30 a census of Chechen refugees currently residing in the Pankisi gorge in Georgia’s eastern mountains.
 
The process , which is conducted annually, will last for two weeks.
 
Minister for Refugees and Accommodation Eter Astemirova said that according to census data from last September, about 2,500 Chechen refugees live in Pankisi.
 
Many Chechens have already left Georgia and moved back to Chechnya, or a third country, as their number has reduced since 1999, when up to 7,000 Chechens, who fled second war in Chechnya, lived in Pankisi.

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