Administration without Frontiers?
European Migration Law
Georgia
Shorena Mamukashvili
Caucasus University
Illegal migration in Georgia is almost a “non-issue”, due to the country’s very liberal visa issuance regime, the lack of proper administrative structures or inter-agency cooperation for monitoring illegal migration, the lack of systematic requirements for the issuance of residence permits, the all but complete absence of specific work permit schemes for foreigners, shortcomings in detention facilities for illegal migrants, and the insufficiency of funds allocated for deportations. The EU-Georgia Action Plan, in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), foresees the development of a Migration Action Plan that will eventually lead towards the conception of a coherent migration management strategy. Notwithstanding the optimistic prospects for management and monitoring migration in Georgia, primarily due to the country’s efforts to meet EU standards, the whole framework needs restructuring, both on the administrative and the legislative level, and, in some cases, it even needs to be created from scratch, especially concerning the information and data collection and processing.
