The WorldRefugee Day has been celebrated since the adoption of the Resolution N55/76 of the General Assembly of the United Nations to focus special attention on the vulnerable persons that were forced to leave their country due to conflicts and human rights violations.

There are about 70 million internally displaced persons in the world, including more than 20 million refugees who were forced to leave their country of origin and seek asylum in foreign countries. Like the world developments, the number of asylum seekers has grown in the last few years in Georgia too; this figure was at record high in 2014-2015. Currently, about 1500 persons have refugee and humanitarian status in Georgia. Majority of them are citizens of Russia, Iraq, Ukraine and Syria.

Protection of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers is one of the priorities of the Public Defender's Office. A separate chapter is dedicated to the rights situation of asylum seekers and internationally protected persons in the annual report of the Public Defender on the situation of human rights and freedoms in Georgia. The document focuses both on positive and negative trends identified as a result of monitoring the rights of mentioned persons by the Public Defender.

The right to asylum is a right enshrined in the human rights law. Accordingly, it is important to protect the rights recognized by international and national laws on refugees and asylum seekers.

The Public Defender of Georgia joins the celebration of the World Refugee Day and expresses hope that international protection of refugees and asylum seekers will be ensured and long-term solutions to their problems will be facilitated in Georgia.