World Refugee Day marked in Serbia

Serbia – home to more than 300,000 refugees and IDPs – is today marking World Refugee Day. Serbia is number one in Europe and number 13 globally when it comes to the number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), with the figure reaching more than 307,000 people. World Refugee Day marked in Serbia Today, central and northern Serbia is home to 236,000 IDPs from Kosovo, along with 97,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia. In the small Vojvodina municipality of Kula alone there are 2,000 refugees – 170 families still facing housing problems, while 218 are seeking assistance in the form of building material in order to repair old houses. OSCE mission chief in Kosovo Werner Almhofer said in a written statement today that sustainable return and integration of IDPs from Kosovo is "still a great challenge in the human rights protection, despite the efforts by the Kosovo government and international community". He called on "more harmonized steps in order to improve the return", and said that the return and integration of displaced persons "must become a priority". Almhofer also said in his statement that OSCE's role in Kosovo is to "supervise human rights". On the other hand, "Kosovo's academy of sciences and arts has accused Serbian authorities of manipulating demographic data," reports from Pristina say. Members of this organization claim that official census from 1991, "boycotted only by Albanians", showed there were "194,190 Serbs in Kosovo", and that the population had since declined. This was their reaction to FM Vuk Jeremic's recent address to the UN Security Council, who reminded this world organization body that more than 200,000 Serbs were driven out of their homes in Kosovo after the 1999 war. The foreign minister was quoting the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, data when he addressed the Security Council.

World Refugee Day marked in Serbia

Today, central and northern Serbia is home to 236,000 IDPs from Kosovo, along with 97,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia.

In the small Vojvodina municipality of Kula alone there are 2,000 refugees – 170 families still facing housing problems, while 218 are seeking assistance in the form of building material in order to repair old houses.

OSCE mission chief in Kosovo Werner Almhofer said in a written statement today that sustainable return and integration of IDPs from Kosovo is "still a great challenge in the human rights protection, despite the efforts by the Kosovo government and international community".

He called on "more harmonized steps in order to improve the return", and said that the return and integration of displaced persons "must become a priority".

Almhofer also said in his statement that OSCE's role in Kosovo is to "supervise human rights".

On the other hand, "Kosovo's academy of sciences and arts has accused Serbian authorities of manipulating demographic data," reports from Priština say.

Members of this organization claim that official census from 1991, "boycotted only by Albanians", showed there were "194,190 Serbs in Kosovo", and that the population had since declined.

This was their reaction to FM Vuk Jeremić's recent address to the UN Security Council, who reminded this world organization body that more than 200,000 Serbs were driven out of their homes in Kosovo after the 1999 war.

The foreign minister was quoting the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, data when he addressed the Security Council.