Turkish official denying exit for a foreign citizen trying to cross into Georgia

Question

My friend is from Kyrgyzstan (he has citizenship) and works in Turkey. He wanted to visit Batumi, a city in Georgia. Georgia doesn't ask visas from citizens of Kyrgyzstan. Because my friend lives in Turkey, he wanted to cross the border from the mainland. However, Turkish officials denied exit for my friend who is not a citizen of Turkey. The official explained that Georgia will deny entry for my friend and that he may enter only by air transport.

To me this situation seems dumb. Does a foreign citizen have always the right to exit a country unless they committed a crime? How can an official from another country can deny exit to a citizen of another country? Or are there some nuances?

Answer 1

When it comes to border crossings, your rights and that specific country's laws don't really align with each other. While according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, you may leave any country even if your own, in many cases governments might not allow it.

Border crossings are more complicated than visa agreements and applications. While your friend may have the right to enter Georgia, the border officials in that specific gate might not permit entry. That may have many reasons from where he currently works and resides to why he wants to get into the country.

The best thing to do in this type of situation is to reach to the embassy of your country (in that occasion Kyrgyzstan Consulate in Turkey) to solve the problem.