On Friday, November 14, the mayor of Belgrade, a representative of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia, the head of the UNHCR Representation for Serbia and the acting director of the city's Center for Social Work signed a contract on the construction of a facility for social housing in protected conditions in Kamendin.
The project is financed from the Pre-Accession Funds of the European Union for 2012 (IPA 2012), and it is co-financed and implemented by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with the support and assistance of the Commissioner for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia and the city Center for Social Work. The city provided construction land and the necessary infrastructure. The building in Kamendin, whose occupancy is expected in the fall of next year, is the fourth in a series of social housing facilities in protected conditions for which the land was provided by the city of Belgrade. Refugees from collective centers on the territory of the capital moved into the first such facility with 20 apartments in Veliki Mokro Lug, built with funds from the US government, in April 2012. This was followed by the construction of 40 apartments in two buildings with the funds of the European Union (IPA 2009) and the occupancy of the beneficiaries in June 2013. The construction of the last building in the same location - 20 apartments, with the funds of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation and donors - is underway.
45 apartments will be built in Kamendin as part of the project "Support for improving the living conditions of forced migrants and closing collective centers" intended for 36 most vulnerable families displaced from the collective center Krnjača and nine vulnerable displaced families from other locations on the territory of Belgrade. The realization of this project will put a padlock on the collective center in Krnjaca, the last and largest collective center for housing refugees and displaced persons in the territory of Belgrade.
Thanks to this and numerous other projects of permanent housing solutions for the displaced, the number of collective centers in Serbia was reduced from 92 in 2007 (when the then Republic Commissariat for Refugees and UNHCR established the Working Group for Closing Collective Centers) to 14 (according to KIRSM data) in October this year (with 266 refugees and 738 displaced persons). The closure of the remaining collective centers in the country is expected in the next two years. A large number of housing solutions will also be provided through the Regional Project of Housing Care for Refugees from the period 1991-1995. year.
To recall, the Regional Housing Care Program (RSP), intended to solve the housing problems of 27.000 families of refugees and displaced persons from the 1991-1995 conflict. in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia was initiated during the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to the Republic of Serbia in 2009. The donor conference was held in Sarajevo in April 2012. At that moment, it is planned to implement the program within five years - until 2017. The value of the Regional Program for all four countries is 538 million euros, of which 246 million euros have been collected so far. The largest donor – about 70 percent – is the European Union. The total value of the program for the Republic of Serbia is 330 million euros. 16.780 families (42.000 persons) are planned to be cared for with these funds. The Republic of Serbia and the Bank of the Council of Europe, which manages the funds, signed the Framework Agreement on the implementation of RSP in October 2013. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were tasked with monitoring the implementation of the program and information campaign, ensuring the transparency of the procedures, and reporting regularly to donors.
The first beneficiary in the Republic of Serbia received assistance in construction materials within the first wave of sub-projects on October 2 this year, which officially started the implementation of RSP in the Republic of Serbia. The realization of the first wave, worth around 2,5 million euros, is underway, which includes the allocation of 125 packages of construction materials and 70 prefabricated houses.
As part of the second wave of subprojects, the value of which is 12,5 million euros, the Republic Commissariat for Refugees and Migration announced, at the beginning of November, public invitations to refugees for the allocation of: 160 social apartments with the possibility of purchase in the municipalities of Šabac, Vršac, Kikinda, Bajina Bašta, Šid , Paraćin, Prokuplje and Kruševac. Apartments in these eight municipalities are allocated for rent at a preferential price, with the possibility of purchase, as well as 40 social apartments in protected conditions without the possibility of purchase in Sremska Mitrovica (as for other projects, the main condition is that potential users do not have a resolved housing issue in Serbia or in the country of origin, and that they have not sold or renovated apartments/houses in the country of origin); installation of 120 prefabricated houses on construction plots of users residing in the cities of Zrenjanin, Kragujevac, Pančevo, Smederevo, Sremska Mitrovica, Loznica and Šabac, municipalities of Arandjelovac, Bačka Palanka, Vršac, Žabari, Irig, Kula, Koceljeva, Odžaci, Petrovac, Pećinci, Prokuplje, Ruma, Sečanj, Smederevska Palanka, Srbobran, Sremski Karlovci, Stara Pazova, Temerin, Topola, Ub and Šid and the city municipalities of the city of Belgrade - Barajevo, Zvezdara, Obrenovac, Palilula, Rakovica, Savski Venac, Surčin and Čukarica (the basic condition for this type of housing solution is that potential users own their own building plot. Persons who will be allocated houses will become the owners of the buildings and bear the costs of communal connections).
The media campaign has started, and the teams of the Commissariat and UNHCR have already gone on a tour of the mentioned municipalities where they hold meetings with potential beneficiaries in order to explain in detail the conditions of the competition and answer all questions.
By the end of November, it is expected to publish public invitations to municipalities interested in solving the problem of refugees in their territory through the allocation of 300 packages of construction materials and the purchase of 250 rural households. As in the first two sub-projects, after the selection of municipalities and the conclusion of contracts with them, the Republic Commissariat will announce public invitations for refugees from the territory of those municipalities.
Immediately after that, in the first quarter of 2015, it is expected to publish public calls for all four types of housing solutions within the third subproject of RSP. Within this sub-project, the realization of 715 solutions in the territory of the city of Belgrade with a value of around 13 million euros is planned.
Serbia also prepared a fifth subproject, the approval of which is expected.
In addition to this process, UNHCR continues to work with state governments in the region to ensure that the remaining outstanding refugee issues from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are resolved.
The Public Relations Department of the UNHCR Representative Office for Serbia
The concept of "Social housing in protected conditions" was included in the Development and Social Protection Strategy of the Republic of Serbia and was evaluated as the best and most adequate solution for people who still live in collective centers. Within this concept, housing solutions are provided for the most vulnerable categories that need additional help from local centers for social work. To date, the concept of "Social housing in protected conditions" has been implemented in 42 municipalities across Serbia, where 976 housing units have been built, 556 of which were funded by the European Union.
The number of asylum seekers in the Republic of Serbia has been constantly increasing since 2008, when the RS Asylum Law began to be implemented. According to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS, more than 2014 persons applied for asylum in Serbia by the end of October 10.000.
In Serbia, there is one permanent center for housing asylum seekers - in Banja Koviljača and four temporary ones - in Bogovađa, Sjenica, Tutin and Krnjača.
In order to adapt the Law to the changed circumstances, the Government established a working group on asylum in November 2013, which was tasked with working on its changes. The working group consists of representatives of competent institutions - the Ministry of Interior, the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, the civil sector and international organizations. Significant progress was made, which, however, was not continued because no meeting of this working group was held since the spring of this year.
