On September 5th, 2022, while speaking about the 6th International Conference in Tbilisi, Marika Kublashvili, the anchor of Alt-Info, noted that Laura Thornton, the former head of the Georgia office of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), has been fighting since 2014 for African migrants to enter Georgia freely. According to Kublashvili, Thornton discussed this in an interview with “Voice of America”.
The host of Alt-info manipulates Laura Thornton’s comment to “Voice of America” and tries to create the impression as if Thornton was trying to bring African migrants to Georgia en masse. In fact, Thornton talked about the problem when the invited guests from Central Africa were granted a visa but still faced problems at the Georgian border.
The anchor “Alt-Info” refers to the recent interview given to the “Voice of America” by Laura Thornton, Director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund.
The journalist asked Thornton about the ongoing discussion on the issue of introducing visas for Russian citizens entering Georgia and the assessment of the initiative by “Georgian Dream” as xenophobia.
While answering the question, Thornton recalled the period of his work in Georgia and noted that “the government of Georgia did not let people in even when they had visas.” According to Thornton, when they organized conferences and invited guests from Central African countries, such as Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, the guests were automatically refused at the border.
Thornton also stressed that xenophobia indeed exists in the Georgian visa-regime policy, although not necessarily in relation to Russia.
“I could not say that this is happening in relation to Russia. Moreover, it seems to me that they are treated more gently and comfortably than people from allied countries or countries that do not have a conflict with [Georgia]. Kenya has not occupied Georgia, but its citizens have problems when they come to Georgia. I think stricter procedures should be established for opponents.”
Notably, Giorgi Kiknadze, the head of the Khashuri office of the “Conservative Movement” who was invited to the same program, voiced a disinformation statement regarding the slaughtered cattle in India, noting that the reason for their slaughter was vaccination. For more information on this topic, see the article by “Myth Detector”:
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