Georgia Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Russia's military invasion and subsequent recognition of the so-called independence of Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions in 2008 continue to sour relations with Georgia; Russia maintains military bases and troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, occupying about 20 percent of Georgia's territory

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 26,660 (Ukraine) (as of 30 December 2023)

IDPs: 308,000 (displaced in the 1990s as a result of armed conflict in the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia; displaced in 2008 by fighting between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia) (2022)

stateless persons: 530 (2022)

Illicit drugs

a transit country for opiates produced in Asia trafficked into Ukraine or Moldova via the Black Sea for other European destinations; not a major corridor for synthetic drug smuggling operations; domestic synthetic market for ecstasy/MDMA, amphetamines, and cannabis with ecstasy laced with fentanyl the drug of choice