TBILISI, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - The integration of Georgia's internally displaced persons back into their communities is to be completed by the end of 2010, the Georgian minister for refugees said Tuesday.
Georgy Kheviashvili said the two main challenges related to the refugees' return - housing and employment - would hopefully have been overcome by that time.
According to Kheviashvili, the ministry has carefully examined the current living conditions of persons forced out of their homes in Abkhazia and South Ossetia by hostilities in the early 1990s, during which the two regions broke away from the central government's control, and it is now working on strategies to improve their plight.
The minister said some 500 candidates would be selected from among Georgia's refugees for a professional reorientation program, with the prospect of subsequent training overseas.
