On 10 May the French minister of the interior, Christophe Castaner, has visited Georgia and signed a deal with his Georgian counterpart, Giorgi Gakharia, which allows two Georgian officers to be directly involved in the investigations of crimes in France that may involve Georgian nationals, reports agenda.ge.

Besides the signed deal, illegal migration of Georgians to France and the general security cooperation, were the two other issues discussed at the meeting. Gakharia said that people from the French migration service will monitor the flights from Georgia to France and the employees of the Georgian migration service will be sent to France with the same goal of combating illegal immigration from Georgia to France. Gakharia also calmed the worries that the held meeting could have negative implications on Georgia’s EU-visa free deal. “The visa free deal is not under review. However, all preventive measures must be applied to avoid such a possibility”, Gakharia stated.

Castaner praised the “successful” French-Georgian cooperation against organised crime and for improved security and said that the governments of Georgia and France are acting together to avoid the illegal migration of Georgians, which may create threats to the EU-Georgia visa waiver. “Georgia is a safe country. Therefore, the number of Georgian asylum seekers to France is not normal in this context,” Castaner said. “We have not talked about cancelling the visa waiver but it is a real possibility at this point”, he said. He also stated that certain Georgians are requesting to come to France for medical treatment, which they could receive in their own country. He added that only those Georgians,  who have serious reasons for receiving French help, will be allowed to enter France.

For more information about the illegal immigration of Georgians into the EU and the Visa-free regime see:  

http://caucasuswatch.de/news/1528.html

http://caucasuswatch.de/news/1616.html