Warning: This story accommodates references to suicide
In a moist, crowded basement on the southern entrance of the Dariala Gorge, the mountainous no-man’s-land between Georgia and Russia, greater than 90 Ukrainian deportees from Russia are being held.
The deportees on the Georgian border checkpoint can solely step exterior after they want the bathroom, and so they should go in pairs below the watchful eyes of Georgian border guards.
They’re right here as a result of they’ll’t cross the border instantly from Russia to Ukraine because of the war, and Georgia refuses to allow them to in as a result of many have felony backgrounds, so they’re stranded. Some have now been dwelling within the basement for practically two months.
Most of those males – together with a handful of girls – are former prisoners in Russia who’ve been deported after serving their sentences, however some have been expelled for different causes, resembling issues with their immigration paperwork.
On Sunday evening, July 20, they mounted a protest.
“We’re not allowed exterior!” one of many males shouted as they had been surrounded by safety personnel on the premises.
“We’re being tortured right here,” known as one other.
“It’s damp, there’s [disabled people] right here with out medical consideration, there’s nothing right here in any respect,” he added.
A video despatched by the deportees to Al Jazeera reveals one man very critically harming himself throughout the Sunday evening protest.
“He’s been right here greater than a month,” 45-year-old Nikolai Lopata, one of many different detainees, informed Al Jazeera by telephone.
“He was promised twice [that] he can be taken away. He purchased [travel] tickets twice, and each instances nobody returned the cash,” Lopata mentioned, noting that the person, who suffers from nervousness, has repeatedly been denied permission to journey by way of Georgia to Ukraine.
An ambulance arrived after greater than an hour, and paramedics bandaged his wounds, then left with out him. The person, who appeared within the video to be in his late 30s or early 40s, was not hospitalised and stays on the checkpoint, volunteers on the scene who’re in touch with Al Jazeera mentioned.
‘They received’t allow us to in or out’
The detainees, who’ve arrived from Russia or territories occupied by Russia and have been launched from jail in latest months, at the moment are caught in limbo on this buffer zone, Lopata defined.
“They [Georgian border officials] took our paperwork. They received’t allow us to in or out of Georgia. They preserve telling us ‘tomorrow, tomorrow’. Some individuals have been right here for greater than a month and a half in horrible, insufferable circumstances,” Lopata mentioned.
Initially from Dnipro in central Ukraine, Lopata mentioned he had been dwelling in Russia, the place he has a Russian spouse, two kids and a sister, since 2005. However in 2010, he was convicted of homicide. When he accomplished his sentence in 2024, he was despatched to a deportation centre for an additional yr. By then, the full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine was raging, so getting a one-way flight to Kyiv was inconceivable.
“Final summer time, they [the Russian authorities] promised to ship me to Georgia. Then, in winter, they promised to ship me to Ukraine by way of Belarus. Then, we had been taken to the border of Georgia, which supposedly accepts us, however Georgia will not be accepting,” Lopata mentioned.
As a substitute, when he reached the border on July 4, Lopata mentioned, he was photographed, fingerprinted and had his paperwork confiscated by Georgian border officers earlier than being taken to a cellar.
“We don’t do something. We sit within the basement,” Lopata continued, explaining that the lads sleep in shifts as a result of there are solely 40 beds.
The lads are supplied with little or no and lack dependable medical help, as a substitute having to depend on emergency care.
“An ambulance comes virtually each day, typically twice a day, as a result of there are disabled individuals, there are sick individuals,” Lopata mentioned, including that there’s somebody with epilepsy, an individual with HIV, and one other with tuberculosis. “However they don’t provide something apart from rapid assist. Yesterday, for instance, they made an injection of painkiller, then mentioned, ‘That’s it, we will’t assist with the rest.’”
Activists and volunteers attempt to convey necessities to the detainees every week.
Meals, home items and private hygiene merchandise are delivered by Volunteers Tbilisi, an organisation serving to Ukrainian refugees in Georgia.
“There isn’t a entry to recent air, there’s a variety of warmth and the cellars are closed,” organiser Maria Belkina informed Al Jazeera.
“These should not circumstances you’ll be able to reside in in any respect.”
Route by way of Moldova cancelled
Anna Skripka, a lawyer for the NGO, Safety of Prisoners of Ukraine, informed Al Jazeera that this downside has been mounting for the previous two years of the conflict in Ukraine: “This humanitarian catastrophe began in 2023.”
Skripka mentioned some individuals have turn into so determined they’ve tried to kill themselves. “They didn’t perceive what was occurring,” she mentioned.
“The circumstances there are horrible.”
In accordance with Skripka, there are 84 males and 7 girls at the moment being detained, and whereas the ladies are held in a separate room, their circumstances are additionally poor.
“The ladies complain to me that they’re not being taken to the bathroom,” Skripka mentioned.
“They requested us to purchase them a bucket with a lid to go to the bathroom.”
Beforehand, deportees at this border crossing had been transferred by bus to Tbilisi Airport to fly to Moldova after which on to Ukraine. That’s how Ukrainian activist Andriy Kolomiyets, thought of a political prisoner by the Russian human rights group Memorial, returned dwelling earlier this month after serving 10 years on drug and tried homicide costs.
Skripka defined that 43 detainees managed to depart between early June and July, touchdown in Moldova after which getting a bus to Ukraine. However 4 of them obtained off the bus and stayed in Moldova, prompting the landlocked Japanese European nation to halt cooperation.
“They’re already again in Ukraine,” Skripka mentioned concerning the lacking 4, which Al Jazeera couldn’t affirm, “however Moldova mentioned, ‘Cease, we don’t need to threat it.’”
Consequently, since mid-July, Moldova has refused passage for Ukrainian deportees from Russia.
Whereas Georgia was cooperative at first, it has additionally begun refusing to permit deportees by way of on the premise that many are ex-convicts who’ve served jail time in Russia, critically limiting the choices for Ukrainians making an attempt to return.
“Most of those people have a critical felony previous and have been convicted quite a few instances for grave or notably grave crimes,” the Georgian Ministry of Overseas Affairs mentioned in an announcement.
However Skripka mentioned that it’s unfair to smear all of them as hardened criminals. Some had been expelled from Russia for missing correct paperwork. Others have had their Russian citizenship revoked.
Their therapy, Skripka argues, goes past bureaucratic injustice; it raises critical authorized and ethical questions.
“They had been crushed, pushed from one other nation by the barrel of a machinegun … they’re victims of conflict crimes,” Skripka mentioned.
Additional complicating issues, lots of the deportees lack the right documentation.
Ukraine has been issuing “white passports” – emergency paperwork to permit residents to journey dwelling – however these solely final for 30 days.
Some Ukrainian politicians have spoken out.
Writing on X, previously often known as Twitter, Ukraine’s Overseas Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of “weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian residents by way of Georgia”.
Russia is weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian residents by way of Georgia. We suggest that Russia transport them on to the Ukrainian border as a substitute.
Since June, Russia has considerably elevated the variety of deported Ukrainian nationals, principally former convicts, to the…
— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) July 19, 2025
“We’re actively working with the Georgian and Moldovan sides to get the remainder of our individuals transited to Ukraine,” he wrote.
“To keep away from additional issues, we publicly provide Russia to ship these classes of Ukrainian residents on to the Ukrainian border. We might be ready to take them on from there. There are related components of the border the place this may be performed.”
A matter of nationwide safety
As soon as detainees have returned to Ukraine, they have to endure an intensive safety test.
“They had been in Russia for a very long time. Every part is feasible. They might have been recruited [by Russian intelligence]. This can be a matter of nationwide safety for Ukraine,” Skripka defined.
There are additionally fears that the variety of deportees will soar within the coming months as there are lots of of Ukrainians who’re nonetheless ready in Russian deportation camps.
“In accordance with our calculations, there are about 800 individuals. And if they’re all delivered to Georgia, it is going to be a catastrophe,” Skripka warned.
In the meantime, in March, an edict issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for that Ukrainians dwelling within the territories claimed by Moscow should both leave or accept Russian citizenship by September 10. This might doubtlessly result in mass deportations.
Lopata, in the meantime, can’t wait to depart, though not essentially dwelling.
“My home in Ukraine has been bombed. My dad and mom have been killed, and I don’t know the place to go,” he mentioned.
“I simply actually need to get out of right here any method I can.”