More money needed to help displaced in Georgia, UN refugee agency says

United Nations refugee officials are calling for more humanitarian and development funding in Georgia to help support an estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees living in the Caucasus country.

Johanna Langenkamp, head of the donor relations and resource mobilization service of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the extra funding was needed to meet the needs of the displaced, including Chechen refugees who have been living in the Pankisi Valley for nearly a decade.

“Much more needs to be done to address the needs of the people,” she said earlier this week, following a UNHCR-organized visit to Georgia of representatives of key donor nations, namely Estonia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and the United States.

The donor representatives – who met with Georgian Government officials, UNHCR staff and others during their visit – also travelled to the breakaway Abkhazia region, where tens of thousands of IDPs are living.

UNHCR has programmes in place across Georgia to support the IDPs and the refugees, including in Abkhazia and the region of South Ossetia as well.