“Georgia deserves visa liberalization and citizens should travel to the Schengen area without a visa, we supported it from the very beginning, though measures have been taken to ensure that all Georgians, who are considered asylum seekers in Switzerland and appeal us, will definitely get rejected we make them return to Georgia. This is what helps Georgia to maintain the visa-free regime with the EU,” Swiss Secretary of State Mario Gattiker said at a news conference.

During the news conference, Swiss Secretary of State also spoke about the problem of the illegal migration and the Declaration on Migration, which was signed in Tbilisi on September 16, 2019, by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Vakhtang Gomelauri.

“We signed a declaration together with Vakhtang Gomelauri [Georgia’s Interior Minister’] yesterday since the number of asylum seekers from Georgia has increased and this is a problem for us,” Swiss Secretary of State said.

According to Gattiker, the Swiss government has good cooperation with the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the declaration would further deepen the relations between the two countries on migration issues.