Georgia’s “No entry” to tourists with long beard

Tourists are miffed with Georgian officials after they were denied entry to the country. Though the Georgian embassy has not given any clarification to the tourist, the annoyed tourists are of the opinion that they had to face this injustice because of their beard and nationality.

Recently a banker family from Dubai was denied entry to Georgia. Faizan Hassan, a Pakistani HR manager at a UAE bank in Dubai, said he, his wife and two sons (aged six months and five years), flew from Dubai to the Georgian capital Tbilisi on December 18 for a winter holiday on a Fly Dubai flight. Upon arrival the family was treated rudely by officials in Tbilisi and was refused entry without an explanation.

However, an official at the Georgian embassy in Kuwait, which is accredited to the UAE, denied the claims and told a UAE newspaper by phone that “an explanation is provided to those denied entry”. “All persons traveling to Georgia may or may not be allowed entry, as per the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” he added.

Hassan, who said he was born and brought up in the UAE, added that there were three other families of Pakistani and Syrian nationality who experienced the same. Hassan emailed a complaint to the Georgian embassy in Kuwait on December 19 but has not received a response yet.

However an official from the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA) has replied to his email to GNTA, apologizing that their trip “was ruined”.

This is not the first time that such an incident has been reported. Earlier in October, an Indian chartered accountant who lives in Ajman, Jainulabedin Hakimji, said that he was denied entry without an explanation. He believes the reason for his baring was because of his long beard, as his clean-shaven friend who was with him was allowed in.