On October 27, 2023, Public Defender of Georgia Levan Ioseliani met with the residents of Odzisi and Gremishkevi villages of Dusheti municipality, located along the dividing line, and listened to their problems.

"My main priority is to monitor the situation in the villages located along the occupation line. At least once a month I go there, meet the population and listen to their problems. My goal is to pay maximum attention to the residents of these villages, and I also want to draw the attention of state agencies and to show them how important it is to make more efforts in this direction.

Today, our main task is to fix these people on their land, because the more residents leave these places, the easier it is for the occupation regime to achieve its intentions. In order to stop the creeping occupation, it is necessary for the State to be involved, to have state programmes and to make more efforts, including in terms of our physical presence on the ground, so that the abandoned places are not occupied by others", said Levan Ioseliani.

The main problem of the residents of Odzisi and Gremishkevi is occupation, creeping annexation and dangerous environment, but in addition, the villages have limited access to water, public transport does not work properly, and the number of jobs is insufficient. Such conditions lead to the outflow of the population and the villages are slowly being depopulated. The Public Defender believes that the State should implement more intensive measures for the residents of the territories located along the dividing line.