The Tbilisi City Court ruled on July 6 that the Patrol Police Department of Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs illegally denied entry to Aida Balafkan, a British citizen and anthropology PhD candidate at the University of London, on April 26, 2022. This information was reported by the non-governmental organization “Social Justice Center”, which represented Balafkan.
According to the “Social Justice Center”, the decision of the Patrol Police Department was based on Article 11.1.1 (i) of the Georgian Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons, according to which the state had a reason to suspect that “the admission of Aida Balafkan would be a threat to the state” but the nature of this information was classified. SJC said use of this article has a “systematic” character, which in fact represents the “refusal to provide any real argumentation and justification”.
SJC affirmed that the court’s decision today validated the claim that Aida Balafkan’s non-admission to Georgia was both unjustified and illegal.
“The mentioned case once again confirms that the authorized state institutions, which make decisions on border crossings, are establishing a practice that violates the rights of foreigners through narrow… unfounded decisions of the legislation,” the statement said, expressing reasonable doubt that the refusal was related to her being born in Iran.
Aida Balafkan, born in Tehran, a British citizen, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of London, arrived in Georgia on April 26, 2022. According to the information of the NGO, she planned to start research activities on Georgian carpets and traditional textiles with the support of Ilia State University.
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