Refugees hold protest action in Tbilisi

Starting from 3:30 p.m. today, internally displaced persons, who oppose their eviction from their places of residence in Tbilisi, are holding their protest action in front of the Parliament of Georgia.

Today in the morning the police began evicting refugees from places of their compact residence - the building of the former Customs Department in Orkhevi and three blocks of the so-called campus in Bagebi. During the eviction, there were clashes of protesters with the police. Several persons were detained.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Olga Gogiya, a forced resettler from Abkhazia, that she lived with her family of four in the former cartography building. According to her story, the family received a warning prescribing to buy out or abandon the room, where they live. "Let they give us the compensation - then, we'll buy our room out. We're not going to leave Tbilisi: young people have no prospects in localities. I came here because if we fail to find the way out, then, my family will soon face eviction," said Olga Gogiya.

Irakli Alasaniya, leader of the opposition party "Free Democrats", has demanded to stop eviction of all refugees out of the places of their compact settlement in Tbilisi. As stated in the party's appeal, this action should be immediately stopped, while the state should give alternative housing facilities to refugees.