Sven Ellerbrock / Photography

Georgia

The dissolution of the Soviet Union brought independence to Georgia, but also a series of violent conflicts over territory and political power. Wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the early 1990s displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Many were unable to return to their homes and became internally displaced persons (IDPs). The 2008 war between Georgia and Russia led to another wave of displacement, particularly from South Ossetia. New settlements were established for those who had lost their homes, while others sought refuge elsewhere in the country. Over the following years, these settlements became part of the Georgian landscape. What had initially been intended as temporary accommodation became, for many, a permanent place of residence.

View from Mount Udabno showing a vast, rolling landscape with grassy foreground and distant hills marking the Georgian-Azerbaijani border near the David Gareja monastery complex
View towards the Georgian-Azerbaijani border from Mount Udabno, near the David Gareja monastery complex in Kakheti, Georgia.
Young boy with short hair wearing a sleeveless top looking to the side with a grimace, two blurred adults sitting in the background outdoors
Roma people are considered one of the most impoverished ethnic groups in Georgia. The majority of them have no access to education, jobs and healthcare services.
Woman sitting on a bed holding an ID card toward the camera with two framed pictures on the wall behind her
Violeta Bjania, a Georgian citizen since 2014, left her native village in Abkhazia at the start of the 1992 war between Georgia and Abkhaz separatists. The process from being a stateless refugee without any documents to finally gaining citizenship took two years.
A refugee family of five from Azerbaijan sitting on a bench in a worn room with peeling walls and simple furniture
A refugee family from Azerbaijan. As in this case, often statelessness only becomes apparent when children enter the system by starting to go to school.
Soldier in camouflage standing guard near a fenced border area with warning signs and trees in the background
A century after the war with Russia, the Georgia-South Ossetia border remains heavily guarded on both sides.

Tserovani

Tserovani, north of Tbilisi, was built for people displaced from South Ossetia during and after the 2008 war. Rows of small houses, schools and basic infrastructure replaced the places people had left behind. The boundary with South Ossetia lies only a few kilometres away. For many residents, however, their former homes remain inaccessible. Years after the war, displacement continues to shape the landscape and everyday life.

View through a bus window showing a dirt road lined with small houses and vegetation in Tserovani with hills in the background
For the IDPs, fares for public transportation taking people to work in the nearby capital of Tbilisi are highly subsidized. Most families in Tserovani, a settlement of refugees from the breakaway region South Ossetia, rely on a monthly allowance of 45 laris (15,50 €), granted by the Georgian government.
Boy seen from behind holding onto a football goal net on a school pitch
Boys on the schools football pitch at the Tserovani refugee camp.
Black-and-white aerial map of a settlement with rectangular plots labeled with numeric codes, showing a grid layout of houses and roads
A map inside the administration office of Tserovani.

Pankisi Gorge

Georgia has also become a place of refuge for people displaced by conflicts elsewhere in the Caucasus. Thousands of Chechens crossed the border during the Second Chechen War, many settling in the Pankisi Gorge. For some, uncertainty continued after arrival. Questions of citizenship, documentation and access to education, employment and healthcare added new forms of insecurity. Different histories of flight thus converge in a country where the consequences of displacement remain visible long after the moment of departure.

Woman wearing a headscarf and patterned dress standing indoors against a floral wallpaper background with eyes closed
A Chechen refugee from Russia at home in the Pankisi Gorge. She asked not to be identified to protect her family in Chechnya from possible reprisals by the Russian authorities.
Group of people walking on a dirt path through a grassy hill with scattered small trees and mountains in the background
Just eight miles long and two miles wide, the Pankisi Gorge is located south of the Georgian-Chechen border. The majority of Chechen fighters in Syria were recruited from here.
Two boys playing badminton outside near a weathered building with a satellite dish in a rural area
The second Chechen war in 1999, sent thousands of refugees like her over the Russian border from Chechnya into Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge. Even today, many do not want to return fearing repression and remain stranded in camps.