Number of Chechen Refugees Reduced in Georgia

2,650 Chechen refugees underwent registration carried out in Georgia?s Akhmeta district and the villages of Pankisi gorge in August, According to the Georgian Ministry for Refugees and Accommodations (MRA).

3,700 Chechen refugees were registered in Pankisi gorge last year.

Additional registration procedures will be carried out till September 26, mainly for those refugees who live in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. MRA officials expect that the number of refugees living in Tbilisi will not exceed 100.

Many Chechens have already left Georgia and moved back to Chechnya, or left for third country, as their number halved after 1999, when up to 7,000 Chechens fled from the second war in Chechnya.