Collective refugee centers to be closed by year-end

Collective refugee centers to be closed by year-end

Speaking to reporters in Belgrade on World Refugee Day, Vulin said that Serbia is home to 29,574 people with refugee status, adding that Serbia had over 700 collective centres at the height of the crisis, while now there are only nine.

"All nine should be closed by the end of the year and the nearly 400 people who are using the collective centrers should be accommodated in a suitable way," Vulin said.

As a result of wars and ethnic cleansing in the 1990s, 618,000 people requested - and obtained - refugee status, but only 144,000 returned to their countries of origin.

"A vast majority of 203,000 internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija have not returned to this day. Today, we still have 18,000 internally displaced persons within the territory of Kosovo and Metohija," Vulin stressed.