Page 9 - GEORptMay18

2.4 Georgian president reassures EU leaders on commitment to contain wave of asylum seekers
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili met with Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, and senior representatives of German and Sweden on March 8 to discuss the issue of Georgian asylum seekers in the EU, according to Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Since an EU-Georgia visa waiver went into force in March 2017, the number of Georgians applying for asylum in Germany and Sweden has skyrocketed. In Sweden, Georgians are the second most numerous group of asylum seekers this year, after Syrians. In 2017, the number of Georgians applying for asylum in the EU increased by 35% y/y to 10,465, according to the European Asylum Support Centre.
Criticism of Georgian migrants has become increasingly loud in Germany, which has been inundated with waves of refugees from the Middle East and Africa in recent years. In January, Joachim Stamp, an integration minister in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, asked federal authorities to reconsider their visa policy towards Georgia. In February, Thomas de Maiziere, Germany's federal interior minister, warned Georgian authorities to slow the wave of immigration or face consequences.
Margvelashvili promised the EU representatives he met that the Georgian government would take more drastic measures to preserve the visa-free travel status the country had earned after lengthy negotiations. "The Georgian government has taken an extremely active and responsible position on every issue that has been brought up by our partners [in the EU]," he said after talking to Tusk.
In turn, the European Council president praised "the commitment of the Georgian authorities to continue working with EU member states to make sure that [the visa-free regime] will function properly."
According to EU diplomats who spoke off the record to RFE/RL, some proposals suggested at the March 8 meetings were stricter control over the issuance of Georgian passports, information campaigns in Georgia and closer cooperation between the Georgian police forces and authorities in the countries where Georgians apply for asylum.
2.5 Democracy in Armenia and Georgia deteriorated slightly in 2017, Freedom House concludes
Armenia's corruption index rating declined from 5.25 to 5.50 in 2017 as a result of the solidification of the system of graft under the rule of the Republican Party, watchdog Freedom House wrote in its latest report on freedom in the world published on April 11.
Armenia's transition from a presidential to a parliamentary republic, currently under way, took place after a heavily flawed referendum in 2015, according to Freedom House, in which there were reports of the abuse of administrative resources, voter intimidation, the alteration of votes and fraudulent voting.
9 GEORGIA Country Report May 2018 www.intellinews.com