Labor migration deal with Israel delayed

Georgia cannot start negotiations on its labour migration agreement with Israel until migration statistics are improved.

The Consul of Georgia to Israel, Aleksandre Jishkariani says that Israel has signed labour migration agreements with Moldova, Ukraine and China; Georgia also wants to start to work in this direction.

"To start working in this direction, it is necessary for the situation of illegal migration to be in line with international standards, which means that the rate of refusal on the border and the number of violations by citizens enjoying visa-free regime must be low”, said the Consul.

The Consul stated that since 27 February, when Israel put Georgia on the list of safe countries, the number of applications on asylum seekers has been dramatically decreased.

But before that, about 1300 citizens requested asylum.

According to the Consul, today there are from 5,000 to 6,000 citizens of Georgia illegally residing on the territory of Israel.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia reported in May that Israel and Georgia agreed on further cooperation in labor migration.

Giorgi Tabatadze, Director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also said that Georgia wants to sign a labor migration agreement with Israel.

It is natural that Israel refrains from signing such a deal with Georgia for now, as the step may more increase the number of migrants on its territory.

The deal may also trigger further outflow of Georgians to Israel as the unemployment rate is still very high in the country.

Georgia is very much in need of better economy, which would decrease the outflow of Georgians to foreign countries.