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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Help for refugee and displaced Serbs through EAR programme

Belgrade, 7 December 2005

The European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) today presented a project with the theme “Support to institutional strengthening of organisations responsible for refugees and internally displaced persons in Serbia-Montenegro” worth €1.2 million.

Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, left

Author: Fonet

The project has been designed with the aim of helping the Serbian government, the Commissioner for Refugee Serbs and the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija in solving the question of refugees and internally displaced persons.

Head of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic explained that help in solving the question of internally displaced persons is directed towards making their return possible to those parts of Kosovo-Metohija where they want to go and where their return is viable, or towards integration in local areas by building alternative accommodation.

Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Dragisa Dabetic said that with this project, help has moved from the humanitarian phase to the phase of permanent solution.

He said that in Serbia, according to statistical data, there are nearly 141,000 persons with refugee status, but it has been estimated that the real number is nearly 300,000 since many have obtained citizenship but their actual living conditions have not changed.

He said that in Serbia there are 99 collective centres where nearly 9000 refugees and displaced persons are living, and it is planned that in 2006, 50 of these centres will be closed and approximately 3000 people moved.

Dabetic said that in Kosovo-Metohija there are 22,000 internally displaced persons and on the territory of that province there are 17 collective centres where around 1000 persons reside, and added that closing these centres is not the aim, rather their closing should be followed by suitable housing and social help programmes.

Dabetic said that in Serbia in the upcoming year, 1000 additional flats will be given to refugees and displaced persons on the territories of municipalities of Nis, Kraljevo and Kragujevac.