Disinformation as if Global Compact for Migration Obligates Georgia to Accept and Finance Migrants

Archpriest Teodore Gignadze said in his sermon on January 28, 2019 that by signing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, the Government of Georgia committed itself to accepting large numbers of migrants. The same opinion was promoted by Giorgi Kasradze, host of Obieqtivi TV’s Gamis Studia program on January 27, who claimed that the Georgian government allocated GEL 15 million from the budget to finance migrants, as set forth in the Compact.

The statements made by Archpriest Teodore Gignadze and TV host Giorgi Kasradze about the Global Compact for Migration are nothing but disinformation, because the UN Compact is a non-legally binding document and respectively, it imposes no financial liabilities on the parties.  

In fact, the UN Compact for Migration does not obligate Georgia to accept migrants.

Not a single provision of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration adopted in Marrakech involves any obligation for accepting migrants. The document aims to develop recommendations to promote better management of increased flows of migrants and problem solution. The Global Compact is built on several important principles, including national sovereignty, reaffirming the sovereign right of States to determine their national migration policy.

The Global Compact for Migration does not impose any financial liabilities on Georgia.

Tornike Nozadze, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Strategic Communications Department, provided a written explanation to the Myth Detector, according to which “the Global Compact for Migration is a non-legally binding document and respectively, Georgia faces no financial liabilities in this respect.”

Repeated disinformation

It should be noted that pro-Kremlin actors, including far-right politicians, have recently promoted an opinion that the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration will lead to the increased number of migrants in Georgia. Similar disinformation on the UN Compact was spread by Irma Inashvili, leader of the Alliance of Patriots, Dimitri Lortkipanidze, director of the Primakov Georgian-Russian Public Center, Sputnik-Georgia and Nino Ratishvili, host of Obieqtivi TV’s Gamis Studia program.

See more information on the migration compact in Myth Detector`s material:

Disinformation as if UN Compact Obligates Georgia to Accept Migrants

Sputnik’s Manipulation on UN Compact and Increased Migration Flow

Prepared By Nika Gurini
Regional Network of Media Literacy Lab