Georgia: Internally displaced person  

The resettlement process for the people who fled Abkhazia and South Ossetia at that time, was in general spontaneous and poorly planned due to several reasons. First of all, during the 90s, Georgia was facing significant economic problems coupled with weak state institutions and internal political tensions. There was a greater emphasis on the return of IDPs rather than integrating them into local communities. A general instruction was made – “not to prevent” IDPs from taking/settling in whatever living spaces they could find. This resulted in a disproportionate distribution of IDPs in various regions, districts, and towns of Georgia.

Some 8,000 to 9,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) were given refuge in Imereti region, the Soviet-era Spa town of Tskaltubo, where some of the by-then abandoned hotels known as Sanatoriums were used to house them. Initially, the abandoned Sanatoriums were supposed to be a “temporary” shelter to thousands of those families. But 29 years later and a several generations deep, these makeshift apartments have become permanent homes for them. There were around 5,000 or so beds in 22 sanatoriums built in the city (some sources state 19) to accommodate the newly displaced people.

Eric Gourlan 2021