Georgia holds negotiations with nine countries on legal employment
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, May 14
Georgia is holding negotiations with Germany, France, Israel, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Cyprus, Greece, and Bulgaria to allow Georgian nationals work legally in the countries and then return to the homeland with a higher qualification, the Georgian Foreign Ministry says.
The ministry reported on Monday that a core agreement was achieved with France last year when the latter agreed to allocate 150 quotas for young specialists annually and the other 500 in total.
Negotiations are now in progress to agree on details with France, on which professions will be privileged [as priorities are given to those professions which are demanded on the market].
The ministry says that the pilot project is ongoing with Poland, with about 45 Georgian nationals legally employed.
“Talks are underway with Germany and Israel,” the ministry reports.
A large portion of Georgian citizens lives and work illegally in Germany or Israel.
Both of the countries put Georgia on the safe country list in previous years, which means that no one in Georgia is politically suppressed and they have zero chances of receiving asylum in the two countries.
The German migration service reports that 1,628 Georgian nationals requested asylum in Germany between January and March of 2019, while the figure stood at 2,215 in the same period of the last year, which is the decrease by almost 27 percent.
The government of Israel stated last year that they might accelerate procedures to allow Georgian nationals to work legally in Israel if the number of Georgians working illegally in Israel will not rise.
The immigration authority of Israel said that the number of asylum requests by Georgians was 1,351 in 2017 and 399 in 2018.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry reported last month that Portugal will become the second EU member state after France which will sign an agreement with Georgia on the legal employment of Georgians.
No further details have been made public so far regarding the dates.
The goal of the agreement on legal employment is to decrease the number of illegal migrants and help Georgian nationals boost their qualification, then to return and serve their homeland with better knowledge, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reports.
