Belarusian expats targeted by Georgia’s immigration crackdown
Tbilisi
April 28, Pozirk. Georgia expelled six Belarusian men and two women in January-March, a record high compared with six expulsions in the whole of 2025, according to Pozirk’s analysis of the migration authorities’ data.
The trend appears to be upward as Tbilisi deported only three Belarusians between 2019 and 2024.
Overall figures also point to an intensifying anti-immigration drive: Georgia expelled 363 foreigners in 2024, 1,311 in 2025 and 904 in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
Earlier this year, Georgian authorities said they plan to deport 4,000 undocumented foreigners in 2026.
Georgian migration authorities are conducting ongoing raids to identify undocumented migrants, including door-to-door apartment checks, with Belarusians among those targeted. Local media and diaspora activists have reported cases of foreigners being deported on what they describe as trumped-up grounds.
Four Belarusian men and one woman were placed in a temporary detention center in the first quarter of 2026, according to the police data.
Georgia, a visa-free country for Belarusians, is home to about 12,000 Belarusians, many of whom fled their country for fear of politically-motivated reprisals after the 2020 disputed presidential election, but their number keeps shrinking. Over the past seven years, Tbilisi has not granted asylum to a single Belarusian applicant.
Belarusian rights advocate Kiślak appeals second asylum denial in Georgia
March 31, Pozirk. Belarusian human rights activist Raman Kiślak has submitted an appeal to the Tbilisi City Court after Georgia’s migration department deemed his refugee status application inadmissible, he has told Pozirk. Kiślak, who has been contesting Georgia’s refusal to …
