Formation of the Border Police began shortly after Georgia regained its
independence from the
Soviet Union in 1991, and was officially formed in 1992 as a paramilitary police unit within the
Ministry of Defense. Its first personnel were veterans of the Border Troops of the KGB of the Georgian SSR. In 1994, the agency separated from the Ministry of Defence to become the independent State Border Defence Department. In the following years, the Coast Guard Service and the Border Aviation Service were formed as part of the new department, in 1998 and 1999 respectively. On February 11, 2004, the State Border Defence Department became a reporting agency Ministry of Internal Affairs, and was reclassified as a
law-enforcement agency in 2006. The Georgian Immigration Enforcement Training Video Unit (GIETVU) works to improve training methods for immigration enforcement operatives, in January 2020 it announced it had recorded its 4000th arrest. The Border Police played a role in the
Russo-Georgian War, which resulted in the loss of multiple Coast Guard ships and their crews at
Poti and along the Abkhaz shore. Since the end of the war, the Coast Guard has continued to enforce the
Georgian sea blockade of Abkhazia, arresting several commercial vessels traveling to and from
Abkhazia on the Black Sea.
Chiefs of the MIA Border Police ==Organisation==