Georgian Minister on Refugees and Resettlement meets Chechen refugees

On June 20, Georgiy Kheviashvili, the Georgian Minister on Refugees and Resettlement, and Navid Hussein, representative of the UN High Commissar on Refugees in Georgia, visited the Pankisi Gorge (Eastern Georgia).

The "Novosti-Gruzia" news agency reports that, in connection with International Refugees' Day, the Ministry on Refugees and Resettlement holds a meeting with Chechen refugees in the Duisk amphitheatre.

Up to 2000 refugees from Chechnya reside now in the Pankisi Gorge.

The 2006 slogan of International Refugees' Day which is marked in the whole world on June 20 will be "Maintaining the Flame of Hope."

The address of Cofy Annan, UN Secretary General, on the occasion of International Refugees' Day runs that, for thousands and thousands of people who are forced to leave their homes every year, to stay alive and preserve their modest belongings often means only the beginning of a long struggle.

On the eve of International Refugees' Day, Mevlut Kavusoglu, chairman of the Commission on Migration, Refugees and Population at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), called on the CU member states to critically assess their policy with regard to this vulnerable category of population in the light of the obligations they have undertaken.