TEMPORARINESS SIX YEARS LONG

Refugees in Serbia

According to investigations of the UNHCR in Belgrade, only 10 per cent of the total number of registered refugees (566 thousand) plan to return home in the course of this and next year. However, the greatest number of them (about 60 per cent) intend to remain in the FRY, so that local integration, as the UNHCR assesses will be the most probable variant of a longterm solution for the largest number of refugees. About 20 per cent of them plan to go to a third country

AIM Belgrade, 28 June, 1997

Contrary to expectations and optimistic forecasts about return of refugees to their homes in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia, only two thousand persons returned in the past two years. This is less than 0.4 per cent of the total number of registered refugees on the territory of FRY. At the same time, every vacancy in any of the 750 centres for collective accommodation is immediately filled with refugees who have so far enjoyed hospitality of their relatives and friends. Overcrowded reception centres in which there are 54 thousand refugees, are in fact a different name for abandoned factory buildings, agricultural complexes, military barracks, halls of cultural centres and similar buildings which the Commissaiat for Refugees of Serbia provided for urgent temporary accommodation of those who had been forced to leave their homes during the four year civil war. Temporary stay in mostly uncomfortable and depressive refugee camps prolonged to several years, and majority of tenants do not even think about returning, and those who wish to return cannot do it because of problems with accommodation, legal difficulties about return, confiscated property or other obstacles on the way to their homeland.

Building Hope

The best solution for refugees is to return to their homes. UN High Commissioner for Refugees will help all those who wish to return, says Marwan Elkhoury, who is in charge of public relations in Belgrade UNHCR office. Within the existing resources, this humanitarian organization which is present on the territory of former Yugoslavia since the end of 1991, will support programs of local integration of refugees. One such program will start in the next few days in Zitiste (Voivodina). An agreement was signed with the Commissariat for Refugees on construction of a settlement for 25 refugee families which are now living in nearby centres for collective accommodation. The municipality has donated the building plot free of charge, and the persons accommodated here will have the opportunity to get a job. The same number of homes were already built in Niksic, and at the moment the selection of families from collective centres which will move into them is under way. Priority will be given to self-supporting mothers and large families.

In explaining what motivated this international humanitarian organization to build hope of those who have decided to stay here, Mr Elkhoury says that such activities are not typical of the work of UNHCR. These are jobs for agencies for development such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the UNIDO. However, until conditions are created for the indernational organizations in charge of development to arrive in Yugoslavia (the obstacle is the outer wall of sanctions) the UNHCR prepared minor projects for assistance to the most vulnerable persons who could be some kind of a model how to help the refugees. For financing such projects, the UNHCR will, according to plan, spend 2.5 million dollars this year.

Repair of the Collective Roof

At the same time, in order to render the existing centres for collective accommodation at least somewhat more usable, the UNHCR is allocating a part of its budget for their repair and reconstruction. This job is done in cooperation with the Commissariat for Refugees of Serbia and Swiss Disaster Relief Unit. In the course of last year, 120 reception centres for refugees were covered by various repairs and reconstruction works, and this year reconstruction of 50 facilities is planned.

"We just partly participate in maintenance of refugee centres for overhead expenses of which 15.5 million dollars have been planned. All these facilities have served their purpose when they were urgently needed. However, we would like a more permenent solution to be found for here now, so that those who are capable to work could count on a job, education, in other words, normal life. We insist that return be made possible to all those who wish to go back home, and those who don't, to be allowed to remain here with all the rights citizens of Yugoslavia enjoy", says Marwan Elkhoury. "The problem of refugees should be on the agenda of all politicians who ought to be implementing the Dayton peace accords, especially the article seven which prescribes that all refugees and displaced persons are entitled to free return to their homes".

Two years after the end of the war, a large number of refugees are in an undefined space, because there is hardly any good will to resolve their status in the way they wished. Temporary stay in refugee camps where many have been living for six years already, will probably for a long time to come be the places of residence for the most vulnerable portion of refugees. The level of reconstruction and construction necessary for successful integration of refugees who intend to remain to live in Yugoslavia by far exceeds the mandate of the UNHCR. Nothing more significant can be done without support of the international agencies for development. Because in a poor country where it is necessary almost every day to force out from the state payment of meagre salaries by strikes and street protests, it is not realistic that anyone, except those who managed for themselves, will be better off.

Stanka Brdar (AIM)