The Offense: Illegal Transfer of a Migrant across the Border
Under the Criminal Code of Georgia, it is a crime to transfer a migrant illegally across the state border of Georgia and to create appropriate conditions for a migrant’s illegal stay in Georgia, in other words to facilitate it, in violation of the rules established by Georgian legislation. The offense is two-pronged: it covers both the unlawful crossing of the border by assisting the migrant and the arrangement of conditions for an unlawful stay. What is punished under this article is the person who helps the migrant cross the border outside the statutory procedure, not the migrant himself.
For the basic offense, the law prescribes punishment in two forms: expulsion of the foreigner from Georgia with a ban on entry into Georgia for a term of two to ten years, or imprisonment for a term of two to five years. The first variant of the penalty is aimed at removing the offending foreigner from the country, while the second entails actual custody. For the defense, it is decisive that both penalties are alternative: the prosecution cannot claim as a matter of course which model the court must choose.