A/HRC/45/54 not allowed anymore with “form No. 9” unless the person had applied for the “foreign residence permit”. An overwhelming majority of ethnic Georgians are not eligible to acquire the de facto “passport” due to their Georgian citizenship. According to information available, as of April 2020, almost 27,000 persons in Gali and adjacent districts had applied for the “foreign residence permit”. The residents affected reportedly remained concerned at their “foreigner” status after having resided in Abkhazia for generations, and also that the “permit” did not entitle them to a range of human rights, including civil, political and property-related rights. The restrictive and unclear eligibility criteria exclude a considerable number of people from obtaining the “permit”, including potential future returnees, while the grounds for rejection are broad and open to potential arbitrary interpretation. In South Ossetia, the requirement introduced in February 2019 for inhabitants of Akhalgori to apply for an additional “permit” to cross the Administrative Boundary Line – without which the persons concerned could not cross – remained in place during the reporting period. 3. Deprivation of liberty and allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment 50. OHCHR continued to receive reports of alleged deprivation of liberty, including arbitrary detention, in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in connection with “unauthorized illegal crossings”. People were apprehended or detained mainly for allegedly attempting to cross the Administrative Boundary Lines without carrying the necessary “documents”, or for crossing outside the formal crossing points. According to submissions received by OHCHR, due to lack of information and uncertainties about where the lines actually lay, the individuals were not aware that they were close to or had violated these lines. 51. The Government of Georgia registered the detention of 86 persons in South Ossetia and 26 persons in Abkhazia in 2019, and of 6 persons in South Ossetia and 24 persons in Abkhazia in the first half of 2020. Women, elderly persons and children were reportedly among those detained. The number of registered detentions on the other side of the Administrative Boundary Lines – in Abkhazia and South Ossetia – is reportedly higher. 52. Various reports underscored the emblematic cases of the detention of Vazha Gaprindashvili, a well-known Georgian doctor, by the authorities in control in South Ossetia on allegations of “illegal crossing”, on 9 November 2019, and the detention of Aleksandre Kapanadze, in July 2019, in Abkhazia, despite his mental illness. Dr. Gaprindashvili was released in December 2019 after active engagement by civil society, the Government of Georgia and international organizations. Mr. Kapanadze remained in a detention facility in Abkhazia until December 2019. 53. On 22 October 2019, information and video footage of the beating and other illtreatment of prisoners at a temporary detention facility in South Ossetia was disseminated on social media,37 raising concerns about conditions in detention facilities and the treatment of detainees.38 4. Right to health 54. According to information available, there is a lack of qualified specialists and general practitioners, inadequate hospital equipment and capacity, and limited supplies of medicines, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Given the lack of access, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated concerns about the human rights and humanitarian situations in the two regions. Various submissions to OHCHR highlighted how the frequent and lengthy closures of crossing points – in some cases imposed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic – affected the local community, particularly individuals with chronic medical conditions or suffering from acute diseases, who needed prompt and/or regular medical assistance that was only available in Tbilisi-controlled territory. 55. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Government of Georgia and international, regional and national organizations and entities have delivered medical 37 38 12 Statement of the Public Defender, 25 October 2019, available at http://bit.do/fygsa. In her submission, the Public Defender recalled the death of Archil Tatunashvili in a detention facility in South Ossetia, in 2018, as a result of alleged torture.