Q:
A:
Government to secure return of refugees, IDPs
Belgrade,
3 October 2008
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabic said today that the government’s most important task is to secure the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) wherever it is possible.
Author:
Fonet
At the working meeting themed “The Role of Local Self-government in Composing Strategies for Lasting Solution of Refugees and IDPs in Serbia”, held in the Sava centre, Krkobabic said that refugees and IDPs have all suffered in their own way, but added that the role of the government, the refugee commission and local trustees is to take care of them all.
Serbia will struggle to draw back all those who left its territory and to provide them everything they used to have, but it will expect, with international community’s assistance, that neighbouring countries do the same for the Serbian refugees, stressed Krkobabic.
Refugee Commissioner Vladimir Cucic said that new Commission’s motto will be “We do not Depopulate, but Populate”, because the Commission’s priority is to have collective centres abolished and refugees and IDPs integrated in local communities. According to him, 818,000 people have been accommodated in Serbia since 1992.
Cucic said that 69,500 returned to Croatia, 79,000 to Bosnia-Herzegovina, 40,000 died, 46,000 went to other countries while 206,000 obtained Serbian citizenship.
He recalled that Serbia is still the first country in Europe and the 13th in the world according to the number of refugees.
Chief of UNHCR mission in Serbia Lenart Kotsalainen said that the local trustees are very important, because they are in the know of the conditions for refugee and IDP integration in local communities.
He announced that the UNHCR will continue helping refugee return and the Serbian government’s refugee programme.
Serbia will struggle to draw back all those who left its territory and to provide them everything they used to have, but it will expect, with international community’s assistance, that neighbouring countries do the same for the Serbian refugees, stressed Krkobabic.
Refugee Commissioner Vladimir Cucic said that new Commission’s motto will be “We do not Depopulate, but Populate”, because the Commission’s priority is to have collective centres abolished and refugees and IDPs integrated in local communities. According to him, 818,000 people have been accommodated in Serbia since 1992.
Cucic said that 69,500 returned to Croatia, 79,000 to Bosnia-Herzegovina, 40,000 died, 46,000 went to other countries while 206,000 obtained Serbian citizenship.
He recalled that Serbia is still the first country in Europe and the 13th in the world according to the number of refugees.
Chief of UNHCR mission in Serbia Lenart Kotsalainen said that the local trustees are very important, because they are in the know of the conditions for refugee and IDP integration in local communities.
He announced that the UNHCR will continue helping refugee return and the Serbian government’s refugee programme.
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