Georgian crime is ravaging in Germany. On February 28th of last year, the Augsburger Allgemeine published an article titled “Police captures Georgian burglary gang”. On May 22nd, the police of Bavaria issued a press release titled “DNA proves Georgian burglars to be guilty”. On August 13th, an article in the Bietigheimer Zeitung was titled “Georgian burglars put behind bars”, mentioning that since 2010, “burglaries by Georgian perpetrators have increased dramatically”. On June 9th, the Südwest Rundfunk broadcasted a report about “Georgian gangs systematically exploiting political asylum”, and on September 15th, the Stuttgarter Nachrichten featured the headline “Georgian criminals receive high prison sentence”. On November 13th, the political magazine Focus featured an article “Georgian mafia brings burglary gangs disguised as refugees to Germany”, and on December 2nd, the Winnender Zeitung published a piece with the title “Georgian gangs go for a ‘burglary spree”. This is just a small selection of what one finds if one enters “Georgische Mafia”, “Georgische Banden” (Georgian gangs), or “Georgische Einbrecher” (Georgian burglars) at Google. In each month of the last year, there was a huge number of articles reporting about Georgian crime in Germany, often in local and regional newspapers. 

According to an internal 34-pages paper “Georgien und Eigentumskriminalität” (“Georgia and theft”) of the German federal police, which was written at the end of 2014 and was heavily cited in German media, just the shoplifting activities of Georgian organized crime in Germany has an annual volume of 250 million euro. The report claims that the “masterminds” of these activities are based in Georgia, sending “soldiers” to Germany, which is endowed with 5,000 euros and instructions on how to apply for political asylum. The paper also states that on average, a Georgian burglar in Germany makes prey of 500 euro per day. 

The phenomenon of Georgian crime abroad is not entirely new. Already in 2010, in the so-called Operation Java, which was led by the Spanish police, European law enforcers from 6 countries (Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain) cracked down on the Georgian mafia operating in Europe. 109 suspects were arrested (48 in Austria, 24 in Spain, 22 in Germany, 11 in Switzerland, and 4 in Italy), but the alleged head of the mafia ring, Lasha Shushanashvili, could escape.

POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES FOR ALL GEORGIANS

The widespread perception that Georgians are associated with gang crime, in particular burglary, carries danger in light of a surge of burglary cases in Germany since 2007 (when Romania and Bulgaria were admitted to the European Union). In 2014, more than 152,000 burglary cases were recorded by the police, while in 2007 this number still stood at 109,000, an increase of almost 40%. The percentage of burglary cases that are resolved by the police is traditionally very low – in the year 2014, in less than 16% of all cases the perpetrators were identified. The German police, which is largely helpless in view of this problem, began in the last year to give advice to people on how they can secure their houses and apartments to make it more difficult for burglars to break in, and in the same vein, the government was discussing to free security upgrades from taxes. This, however, has not led the debate to calm down. On the contrary, such measures are widely seen as the resignation of the police and the government, giving in to an apparently uncontrollable crime problem. The surging burglary numbers have also contributed to the dramatic fall of popularity of the enlargement of the European Union, which is blamed for removing borders to low-income countries in Eastern Europe and making it easy for people with bad intentions to immigrate. 

All of this is very unfortunate, as a small group is spoiling the reputation of the 99% of Georgians who are decent and law-abiding. More importantly, however, are the political consequences that may result. In the wake of the inflow of millions of refugees, right-wing parties are on the rise all over Europe, most notably in France, where the Front National became the second strongest party in the elections for the regional councils. In this political climate, which is dominated by agitation and polarization on immigration issues, national parliaments are supposed to approve the removal of visa restrictions with Georgia and Ukraine. To counter the right-wing parties, which is an opportune moment that will stir up a discussion about these visa liberalizations (which so far has hardly set in), it will be very straightforward for the moderate parties to simply halt the liberalization process. For that to happen, one does not even have to cancel it formally. It would be enough to postpone the ratification of the new visa regime.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

If one is sympathetic with Saakashvili’s government, one may argue that he locked up all the delinquents (and, as even supporters of Saakashvili may admit, many non-delinquents). In this way, he prevented them from carrying out criminal activities abroad. The Georgian Dream government then granted generous amnesties whose beneficiaries may have decided to continue their criminal careers not in Georgia, where they were already branded by their previous convictions, but in Europe, where also the conditions in the prisons are not that harsh. This viewpoint, however, is not compatible with the observation that the surge of Georgian crime in Germany started already in 2010, i.e. before the Georgian Dream government came to power and granted its amnesties. 

An alternative explanation would be that because of Saakashvili’s strict policies perpetrators did not see a future for their “careers” in Georgia and therefore decided to move abroad. Then the amnesties were not to blame. 

One may also argue, however, that it does not matter how Georgia treats its criminals. Be it strict or lenient, if it is true that a burglar in Germany can make 500 euros per day, it is simply much more lucrative to pursue one’s criminal activities in Germany instead of Georgia. 

Because it is unclear which of these explanations applies, it would be wrong to reverse the amnesty policies or tighten the criminal code again. Rather, similar to many Western countries which prevent Muslim extremists to travel to Syria, somebody who has a criminal record, be it domestic or foreign, should not be allowed to travel abroad. Unlike Europe, Georgia still has control over its borders, and while entering Europe illegally is very easy (one just has to join the refugee flow), Georgia might make it difficult for problematic persons to leave the country. One possibility is to simply confiscate the passports of such people. This could be done temporarily, e.g. for 5 years after the criminal conviction. 

Another step may be to let Georgians who were sentenced in Europe serve their terms not in European but in Georgian prisons. This would have to be agreed on with Western European governments, but it could be done, as it would be in everybody’s but the perpetrator’s interests. While European prisons are often considered comfortable by their inmates, this is arguably not the case in Georgia. One might even consider letting some of the court trials with Georgian defendants not take place in Europe but in Georgia, according to the Georgian criminal code, which by European standards is very strict. This would reduce the incentives to become a criminal abroad, where both the prey is higher and the consequences are less severe.

I think that the matter should be proactively addressed by the government of Georgia to make sure that the visa liberalization is not canceled at the last moment. It would be an utter disappointment for the Georgian people, who enthusiastically celebrated the upcoming visa liberalization by illuminating bridges and buildings in blue color with golden stars.