Serbian Refugees Demand Year-Around Attention

Croatian town of Knin

"This is a very sad day for us, as it reminds us every year that we exist in the eyes of the authorities only on this day," Danka Nikolic, a refugee from Croatia, told Balkan Insight.

Nikolic was one of 700,000 persons from war affected territories of former Yugoslavia who found shelter in Serbia.

Fifteen years since the end of Balkan wars, Serbia is ranked first in Europe and 13th in the world in terms of the number of refugees and internally displaced persons, IDPs, according to a 2010 UNHCR report.

Many of those persons have obtained Serbian citizenship and IDs since 1995, but some 65,000 still have refugee status.

"Given that Serbia has the largest number of extremely vulnerable refugees, estimates say that between 300 and 350 million euros would be required to cover their needs," Eduardo Arboleda, the head of the UNHCR office in Serbia, said.

Arboleda said that some 97,286 displaced people in Serbia are in urgent need of help.

"UNHCR has to raise funds to help these people," he said, adding that the organisation will continue to seek lasting solutions to various programmes such as social housing in protected conditions, purchase of rural homes, allocation of building materials and loans to complete unfinished buildings.

Miodrag Linta, Head of the Coalition of Refugee Associations in Serbia, says the majority of refugees and displaced persons are not integrated into the Serbian society, attributing this unresolved housing issues and the high unemployment rate.

Linta told Balkan Insight that the only solution to the problems is for Serbia to open dialogue with Croatia on the issue.

The Coalition of Refugee Associations has collected some 70,000 signatures so far for their petition, which demands a solution to the remaining outstanding issues including return of property and acquired rights, establishing agreed standards in war crimes trials and the urgent exhumation of some 600 mass graves.

Their goal is to collect 100,000 signatures by the autumn and stop Croatia's entry into the EU until mutually agreeable solutions to the problems can be found.

The European Commission has already recommended completion of Croatian accession talks, clearing the way for the country's accession to the EU in 2013.