On 1 April 2021 IOM launched a seven-day in-person training course in Telavi on the topic of International Migration Law (IML) and Human Rights of Migrants for the 34 staff of the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

IOM Georgia Chief of Mission, Sanaja Celebic Lukovac visited Telavi to officially welcome the participants. “Your dedication to your jobs and interest in learning and further developing your skills is inspirational and we are very glad to have the opportunity to partner with you once again. IOM has always cherished excellent cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs” said Ms. Celebic Lukovac in her opening remarks. The participants were further greeted by Ms. Maja Wiebler, IOM Georgia EMERGE Project Manage, Ms. Tamar Sartania, Inspector of especially important cases of Project Management Division of International Relations Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Mr. Giorgi Osadze, Director of Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs who also attend the seminar. 

IOM engaged International Migration Law Expert, Michael Bisi and National Legal Expert, Giorgi Chkheidze to lead the training course for two groups of the Human Rights Department staff. The training course will cover the following topics - migration and security - international instruments on national security, clauses on human rights in international instruments on security, clauses on national security in international instruments on refugees, migrants, the Convention against Torture, human rights of migrants in occupied territories, extradition and the overview of the case load on migration of the European Court for Human Rights.

The training course was organized with the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, under IOM’s EMERGE Project and was conducted upon request of the Ministry seeking to explore these important migration topics in more depth.

This training course builds upon work already done in October 2020 during a week long training course organized by IOM in Kakheti.