Lithuanian women’s rights advocate, who has lived in Georgia for 15 years, denied entry

Lithuanian women’s rights advocate Regina Jegorova-Askerova, who has lived in Georgia for 15 years, has been denied entry into the country. The relevant document provided by Georgia’s border control service did not provide any explanation for the decision.

On the morning of 20 March, Jegorova-Askerova wrote on Facebook that she was ‘deported back without any explanation’.

‘After exactly 15 years in my beloved Georgia, I have now been NOT allowed to enter the country!’ she wrote.

According to Jegorova-Askerova, she was given a document stating that she was barred from entering due to ‘other cases envisaged by Georgian legislation’, making it difficult to understand the specific reasons why the state denied her entry.

‘It clearly illustrates where the country is today in a nutshell’, Jegorova-Askerova noted.

Formerly a journalist, Jegorova-Askerova has been working at the Swedish women’s rights organisation Kvinna till Kvinna (Women for Women) since 2017, where she currently serves as the Regional Director for the South Caucasus.

She reportedly has a family in Georgia, including two children, and also holds permanent residency.

According to her social media accounts, Jegorova-Askerova had expressed solidarity with Georgian citizens who protested against the foreign agents law targeting civil society and the media in 2023–2024. She was present at the rallies that time.

OC Media has reached out for comment to Jegorova-Askerova, as well as Georgia’s Interior Ministry, but did not receive a response as of publication.

The phrase ‘other cases envisaged by Georgian legislation’ is frequently used in cases of individuals turned away at Georgia’s borders, including with dissidents and journalists from various countries.

In recent years, particularly since the start of the war in Ukraine, this provision has been used to deny entry to Kremlin-critical Russian opposition figures and journalists, including those who had been living in Georgia for some time.

In October of last year, Czech-British journalist Ray Baseley, who actively covered political developments in Georgia on his social media, was denied entry to the country.

Baseley had been commissioned by the Ukrainian media outlet The Kyiv Independent to cover Georgia’s parliamentary elections on 26 October.

In September, Arsen Kharatyan, the founder of the Georgian–Armenian media outlet Aliq Media, was barred from entering the country and detained at Tbilisi airport for hours before being deported.

Earlier that same month, Belarusian journalist Andrei Mialeshka was also denied entry to Georgia, even though he had been living in the country for several years.

Both were handed documents saying they were barred due to ‘other cases envisaged by Georgian legislation’.

After a British political consultant for the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party was denied entry to Georgia in November 2023, the director of the local rights group the Social Justice Centre, Tamta Mikeladze, told OC Media that Georgia’s State Security Services maintained a list of people who should not be granted entry.

‘It is not legally regulated, by what standard of proof, in what cases, by whom a person is included in this list’, Mikeladze said at the time.

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