Georgian Government Tightens Immigration Laws to Suppress Foreign Influence

Executive Summary:

• The Georgian parliament is discussing a migration reform package, drafted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, aimed at curbing illegal migration and perceived foreign political interference. It introduces strict penalties, including lifetime bans for foreigners deemed disruptive.
• The reforms follow increasing foreign participation in anti-government protests, prompting concerns that the government is targeting dissenters, including refusals of entry of journalists, activists, and public figures who have expressed anti-Russian sentiments.
• The new migration legislation can be considered as another component of Georgian Dream’s moves to build an authoritarian regime in Georgia isolated from the external world.

On April 30, the Georgian parliament completed discussions on a 200-page legislative package entitled “On International Protection” to combat illegal migration to Georgia and prevent abuse of the asylum procedure (Parliament.ge, April 16). The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared these legislative changes, which are projected to be approved by the Georgian parliament at the end of May (Police.ge, April 24). The ruling Georgian Dream party is trying to simultaneously curb the high levels of illegal migrants in Georgia and, under the pretext of fighting illegal migration, also limit the interference of foreign citizens in the political life of the country. According to legislative developments, a new punishment will be introduced into the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses, which includes expulsion of a foreigner from Georgia and a ban on entry into the country for up to life. Additionally, there has been an entry in the administrative code for the expulsion of foreigners from Georgia in cases of petty hooliganism, vandalism, disobedience to the police, verbal abuse of an official, violation of the rules of assembly, and manifestation, which includes an entry ban of up to three years (Parliament.ge, April 16). The Georgian Dream government’s push for stricter restrictions on foreigners that the regime does not like is another step to close off Georgia from those that the ruling party perceives as a threat to its rule.

Over the past year, the Georgian government has noted more citizens of foreign countries, including ethnic Georgians who do not have Georgian citizenship, in daily mass anti-government protests, which have greatly angered the Georgian Dream government and pushed it to tighten immigration legislation. For example, in 2024, during protests against the adoption of a Russian-style law on foreign agents, Georgian police beat and arrested an American lawyer, Ted Jonas, living in Georgia (Formulanews.ge, May 1, 2024).

Recently, there have been more frequent cases of refusal for Westerners to enter the country. At the end of April, Georgian border police did not allow Romanian stand-up comedian Victor Patrascan, known for his anti-Russian sentiments and who was planning to hold several shows in Georgia, into the country (Tvpirveli.ge, April 30). The comedian connects the refusal to enter the country with Georgian Dream’s pro-Russian policies (Tvpirveli.ge, April 30). In April, two French journalists who had previously covered anti-government and pro-European protests in Georgia were also refused entry into the country (Reporters Sans Frontières, April 10). In March, Lithuanian human rights activist Regina Iegorova-Askerova, who has lived in Georgia with her family for 15 years, was not allowed into the country (Facebook/regina.jegorova, March 20). In April, Russian opposition activist and former candidate for Moscow municipal deputy Nikolai Kasyan was also denied entry to Georgia (Ekho Kavkaza, April 11).

The Georgian government also decided to change the procedures and terms for granting asylum to foreign citizens through new legislation in an effort to disguise the political background of the tightening migration policy. Granting asylum will be considered directly at the state border without allowing the foreigner into the territory of Georgia if the entry of the foreigner poses a threat to state security. The terms for consideration and appeal of decisions on asylum cases have been significantly reduced (Police.ge, April 24).

Since Georgian Dream came to power in 2012, the influx of foreign citizens into Georgia, including illegal migrants, has increased dramatically. In a country as small as Georgia, with a population of only 3.7 million people, the fact that about 272,000 foreign citizens have remained since 2012 is significant (Kvirispalitra.ge, May 5; Geostat.ge, accessed May 16). There are no statistics available for these numbers before 2012. Georgia’s Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Alexander Darakhvelidze, admits that the country lacks a unified system for recording illegal migrants. According to his rough estimates, however, there are between 20,000 and 25,000 illegal migrants in the country today (Interpressnews.ge, April 30).

Georgian Dream justifies the tightening of migration policy with the relevant directives from the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. It refuses to take responsibility for the chaos in its own ​​migration policy. The government has information about the presence of thousands of illegal immigrants in the country but, in the first quarter of 2025, according to statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs,  only  219 foreigners were deported from Georgia, including citizens of Iran, India, Türkiye, the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Jordan, Armenia, Algeria, Cameroon, the United States, Belarus, Moldova, Nepal, Tajikistan, Lithuania, and Kyrgyzstan (Facebook/jamnews, May 1). At the same time, it is assumed that some of these deportees were not illegal at all and, for various reasons, were expelled from the country.

Under Georgian Dream rule, the number of foreign students in Georgia increased sharply. As some local experts point out, however, many from economically underdeveloped countries come to Georgia under the pretext of studying to legalize their stay in Georgia (Commersant.ge, March 10). In higher education institutions in Georgia, there are more than 187,000 students, and every fifth student is a foreigner (YouTube/@businessmediageorgia5018, February 28). Of the 37,125 foreign students, 20,319 are citizens of India (Business Media, March 10). Many foreign students are citizens of Jordan, Sudan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, Azerbaijan, etc. (Business Media, March 10). While they are studying, they often get jobs as couriers, taxi drivers, and in the service sector. Because of this, social tensions are growing in the country as foreigners are perceived to be taking away jobs from locals. Local Georgian couriers, taxi drivers, and tourist guides have already held several protests demanding the protection of their labor rights and the local labor market from foreigners who do not even know the Georgian language and do not comply with local laws.

Even Salome Zourabichvili, the former president of Georgia, expressed resentment about the migrant situation in Georgia. She wrote on Facebook, “When I get into a taxi, I meet a driver who does not know the language or the city, and no one even requires the driver to have a license. Not to mention tour guides, this matter is entirely in the hands of the Russians and other nationalities. Russians already feel at home in Georgia” (Facebook/salome.zourabichvili, May 4). During the rule of Georgian Dream, the Russian-speaking population in Georgia has grown sharply. According to Georgian non-governmental organization Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, from 2022 to 2024, following the beginning Russia’s full-invasion of Ukraine, 71,600 Russian citizens, 21,200 Ukrainian citizens, 11,400 Belarusian citizens, 9,000 Indian citizens, 6,000 Turkish citizens, and 5,800 Azerbaijani citizens remained living in Georgia (Facebook/IDFI.official, May 2).

More alarming and threatening to Georgia’s national security is the fact that Russians are not only choosing to live in Georgia but are eager to obtain Georgian citizenship. This gives them the right to vote in elections and influence the country’s political life. The Russian Federation ranks first in the list of countries whose citizens have been granted Georgian citizenship over the past 10 years (Geostat.ge, accessed May 16). According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, under the ruling Georgian Dream party from 2015 to 2024, 24,866 Russian citizens received Georgian citizenship (Georgia Online, April 24). According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, 2,361 Russian citizens were granted Georgian citizenship in 2024 alone. In total, 3,587 people received Georgian citizenship over the past year (Georgia Online, April 24).

Citizens of almost 100 countries can visit Georgia for different periods of time without a visa, which is in part due to Georgia’s interest in attracting more and more foreign tourists (Legislative Herald of Georgia, June 8, 2015). Additionally, citizens of 17 countries in Asia and Africa can visit Georgia with a visa or a residence permit for the Persian Gulf countries. There are countries with authoritarian regimes or engulfed in civil wars among these 17 countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan. Particularly puzzling is the presence of Syria on the list of these countries, which, during former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, recognized the independence of two occupied regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. Notably, despite the change from a pro-Russian regime in Syria, Damascus has still not withdrawn this recognition (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 29, 2018).

Georgian Dream’s migration policy has caused bewilderment, as citizens of some adversarial countries are accepted without issue and citizens of friendly countries are treated unfairly. For example, Georgian Dream reduced the length of visas given to Ukrainian citizens from three years to one year (Netgazeti, April 3). Georgian Dream, under the pretext of fighting illegal migration, is striving to gradually close the country to the outside world, including Western journalists and activists. The new migration legislation can be considered as another component Georgian Dream’s moves to build an authoritarian regime isolated from the external world, and an attempt to lower an iron curtain around Georgia.