Georgia and France Reach Agreement on Legal Employment of Georgians

Georgia’s Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani stated that the legal employment of Georgian citizens abroad is one of the priority directions, adding an agreement on the issue has already been reached with France.

“This is an important step for preventing the growth of the number of asylum seekers,” he added.

The Minister said similar negotiations are also underway with several other countries.

"This is one of the main directions of integration with the European Union and is a part of people-to-people contact and mobility. We are working on this issue with Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, Romania, Portugal and Israel, which is not an EU member,” he said.

Zalkaliani noted certain pilot projects are being carried out together with the International Organization for Migration.

“We already have specific results. An inter-agency working group has been set up, which involves representatives of the Ministries of Health, Education and Foreign Affairs and, naturally, we will take more steps in the future,” he added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that together with the Ministry of Health, they are actively cooperating with EU/Schengen member states, and with Israel, to facilitate temporary labor migration.

“In terms of circular migration, the Georgian side cooperates with the Federal Republic of Germany, where the German government is actively considering the revision of approaches relating to the immigrant workforce in general,” the ministry added.

By Thea Morrison