The international organization Amnesty International calls on Russia and the de facto authorities in the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region to open the closed crossing points over the ABL.

As the organization said in its statement released on Friday that since early September, the de facto authorities in the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region suspended freedom of movement across the only operating crossing points over the administrative boundary line (ABL) with the rest of Georgia, thereby further worsening the humanitarian situation by denying residents of the breakaway region access to medical care, social security benefits, education and family visits across the ABL.

“Residents of the Akhalgori district of South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region, many of whom do not hold the passports issued by the de facto South Ossetian authorities, regularly need to cross the ABL to access various services in the rest of Georgia. According to the information available to Amnesty International, the closure of the crossing points has particularly negatively affected older people, schoolchildren and university students and those in need of medical care,” the organization said.

According to the statement, schoolchildren and university students who were visiting their families in the district during a summer break were not able to return and resume their studies. People who could previously cross the ABL to receive medical care in Tbilisi-controlled territory, where a higher standard of free healthcare is available, and which they often could get more quickly in emergency, have been deprived of this opportunity.

The de facto authorities in the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region must open the closed crossing points over the

“ABL and respect and protect the rights of local civilians. Russia, as the state exercising effective control over the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region through its military, financial and political aid to the de facto authorities and the presence of its military in the territory, must also uphold the right to freedom of movement of civilians, including by ensuring the end of arbitrary restrictions across the ABL,” the statement reads.