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NSHC's
projects for Refugees and IDPs: |
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Network of Mobile Teams for Extremely Vulnerable
Individuals >>> |
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Development
of Local Economy for Sustainable Return and
Reintegration
in Croatia
>>> |
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Novi
Sad Initiative - Road Signs for Durable Solutions
>>> |
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 SRC
Analytical Report:
Integration as a
Durable Solution for Refugees and Internally Displaced
Persons in Serbia
PDF 243KB |
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SRC
Analytical Report:
Right to Asylum
in the Republic of Serbia and Comparative Solutions in the
Region of Southeast Europe
PDF 161KB |
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NEWSLETTER of the
Serbian Refugee Council
No.1 Focus of this issue:
Serbia's Draft Amendment to the Law on Refugees
PDF 270KB
No.2 Focus of this issue:
Integration
PDF 371KB
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Regional Conference:
Durable Solutions for Refugees, Novi Sad, 30.-31.5.2003.g.
CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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Other organizations which provide
assistance to refugees and IDPs in Serbia: |
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Free legal assistance: |
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Praxis
Novi Sad, Ise Bajića 8,
tel. (021) 472-3468 |
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SDF
Beograd, Kneza Miloša 19/I, tel. (011)323-1969 |
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HCIT Novi
Sad,
Vojvođanskih brigada 17, tel.(021)528-132 |
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Assistance
to returnees to Croatia and Kosovo: |
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DRC
Novi
Sad, Ise Bajića
8,
tel. (021) 472-3468 |
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UNHCR Beograd,
Krunska 61, tel.(011)344-2091, 344-2947 |
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Material
assistance: |
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DRC
(medical aid),
Beograd, Zagrebacka 6, tel. (011)
218-7812 |
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Red Cross of
Vojvodina, Novi Sad,
Pionirska 8, tel.(021)423-750 |
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Red Cross
Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Pionirska
12, tel.(021)622-755 |
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Refugees
and Internally Displaced Persons in Vojvodina |
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During the 1990's wars in Croatia and Bosnia,
more than 300,000
refugees - almost half of the entire number of
refugees in Serbia - fled to Vojvodina.
According to official UNHCR data, at the end of
2002 there were 166,000
refugees and 12,500
internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Kosovo
and Metohija registered in Vojvodina.
More than 67,000
refugees re-registered during the last
refugee census
in January 2005. Revision of
the status of all refugees is
currently taking place, and it is
expected that one third will loose their refugee
status. This may be because: they have been
granted Serbian citizenship; they applied
for a program of return to Croatia or they did
not register
in the 2001 census.
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 A bad economy and
a turbulent political situation in Serbia
make the refugee integration process very
difficult. Local integration has been
chosen as durable solution by
approximately 60% of refugees in Serbia.
However, housing problems and high unemployment
rate are two main obstacles for
successful local integration. Those who
had started building their own homes can't
afford to finish them, and large number of such
houses
need to be legalized. Refugees have
little or no chance
of getting a loan or a grant, and only
20% of the entire refugee population succeeded
in solving their housing problems
in this way. Only 15,000 refugees in
Vojvodina are registered
with the Bureau for the Unemployed,
although
a much larger number
are unemployed. They lack knowledge and
information about self-employment opportunities.
A number of refugees
have
been granted Serbian citizenship, but
this does not help them in solving their
daily ''refugee'' problems.
The repatriation process in their
countries of origin (mainly Croatia) is
running
slowly and with many difficulties. Safety
preconditions for return to Kosovo are still
unreachable, and IDPs' problems are particularly
difficult: they are not included in the existing
housing projects, they
cannot apply for grants, and
their living conditions are almost unbearable.
This situation only
exacerbates the growing animosity towards
refugees and IDPs.
These difficulties mentioned above are
only some of the problems
that refugees and IDPs in Serbia
face on a daily basis. As a consequence,
refugees suffer from prolonged posttraumatic
stress syndrome, family relations are disturbed,
there is a high incidence of asocial behaviour,
depressive and neurotic disorders, increase in
alcohol and drug abuse and prostitution etc. (Photo: refugee children in front of
the collective refugee center 'Cardak', which
was
severely damaged in a fire a few months
after this photo was taken. The refugees were
moved to other collective centers in Serbia.
) |
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Network
of Mobile Teams for Extremely Vulnerable Refugees |
| Project
donor: UNHCR |
| Coordinator:
Nenad Opacic, psychologist |
| Psychosocial
Counseling Center: Temerinska 54, Novi Sad |
| Tel.:
(021) 528-801 |
| Working
hours: 3 - 5 PM |
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NSHC has been implementing this project in
Vojvodina since April 2000. The aim is to
provide comprehensive psychosocial support
to the most vulnerable refugees and IPDs,
and to develop local (municipal) networks of
social and humanitarian assistance for these
beneficiaries.
Sixteen mobile teams consisting of
psychologists and social workers are
implementing this project in all 46
Vojvodinian municipalities. They are
providing psychological support services,
social services, advocacy and information
provision in direct contact with
beneficiaries,
through home visits and visits to
collective centers. In Novi Sad such
services are also provided within the
Psychosocial Counseling Center at 54
Temerinska street. |
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 We
established good cooperation with all
of the
relevant local structures such as
the
Commissariat for Refugees, municipal Red Cross
offices, Centers for Social Welfare, local
government representatives, and also with local and
international non-governmental organizations. During
2005, NSHC's field associates have been engaged
particularly in:
the
provision of documents needed for citizenship
application;
the
provision of various social benefits;
solving housing problems and
;
working with refugees living in soon-to-be-closed
collective centers etc.
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In
Central and Southern Serbia this project has been
implemented by three local NGOs: ''Amity-snaga
prijateljstva'' from Belgrade, ''Sigma Plus''
from Nis and ''Horizonti'' from Cacak.
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Development
of Local Economy for Sustainable Return and
Reintegration |
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As
partner organizations,
NSHC and
Serbian Democratic Forum (SDF) from Pakrac, Croatia,
implemented a one-year project
in 2006 named
’’Development
of Local Economy for Sustainable Return and
Reintegration’’.
Following
the years
of experience and know-how in implementation of
return program and community
revitalization
of war-affected areas in Croatia, SDF realized that
the main obstacle for sustainable return of refugees
and displaced people is economic insecurity and lack
of employment opportunities. Through this
project SDF and NSHC are going to support
development of economy-oriented programs in
municipalities of
Okučani,
Stara Gradiška
and
Gornji Bogićevci
in Western Slavonia,
and therefore promote sustainable return and
reintegration in Croatia.
For
the past fifteen years, rural areas of Republic of
Croatia have suffered huge changes in economy,
especially in a view of ownership and posing family
farms into entirely new economic and legal frames,
in accordance with EU standards. War-affected areas
lack opportunities for employment and expansion of
medium and small-sized enterprises, which aggrevates
return and sustainability of returnees. An average
family farm in Croatia has 2,9 hectares of land and
lacks adequate capacities for quality production.
Farm producers do not know how to solve this problem
and often they even do not think about starting a
production.
Within this project, at least 20 family farms
in
municipalities of
Okučani, Stara Gradiška
and
Gornji Bogićevci
(Western Slavonia)
organized production based on contemporary market
principles. Farm owners, returnees, were
introduced with opportunities and rights on
provision of funds by the state in the process of
joining to EU (premiums and subventions), which
should expand their productions and ensure existence
for all family farm members. They were also given
an opportunity to gain know-how and skills on planning,
organizing and managing a family farm, and know-how
on technologies in plant and cattle production. They
were given professional advice in the process of
registering family business and business plan
development. Family farms will become members of a
Cooperative, which will reduce costs of production,
purposely organize production, ensure selling of
their products and funds for further investments,
provide expert assistance, guidance and joint
approach at market. Returnees will also be offered
to join re-qualification program in order to gain
necessary skills for employment.
Local authorities and community representatives in
all the mentioned municipalities have been
introduced to project activities in order for the multisector cooperation to be established. This
kind of approach should contribute to a long-term
benefit for the entire local community. The project
was financed by
the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
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Novi
Sad Initiative - Road Signs to Durable Solutions |
| Within
the NGO Transition and Development Programme
in Serbia, sponsored by the FRESTA and implemented
by the Danish Refugee Council, NSHC has been
implementing the Novi Sad Initiative project and the
Road Signs
to Durable Solutions project from 2001 to 2004. The
overall aim of these projects was to support
refugees and IDPs in Vojvodina
in finding
sustainable durable solutions, repatriation in the
country of their origin or local integration in
Serbia. NSHC
was part of this programme
together
with five local NGOs: Group 484, IAN, Serbian
Democratic Forum, Hi Neighbour and Protecta.
Our basic
activity was provision of informative support to
beneficiaries and to representatives of local
communities in Vojvodina. Info-Center was open in
Novi Sad where refugees and IPDs could get all the
needed information related to return and local
integration possibilities. The same information was
delivered to refugees in collective centers. In
cooperation with NGOs 'Društvo za toleranciju' from
Bačka Palanka and 'Regionalni odbor za pomoć
izbjeglicama Vojvodine' from Novi Sad, NSHC
published articles on the subject of durable
solutions in
the
'Tolerancija' bulletin. We organized public tribunes
on the subject of
return
and local integration.
An
important part of our activities was regional
collaboration with NGOs from Bosnia and Croatia,
which resulted in organizing Regional Conference on
Durable Solutions in May 2003.
The
Conference's Conclusions and
Recommendations
>>>
Considering the fact that
most of the
refugees (60-70%) intend to stay in Serbia, the main
precondition for their successful local integration
is economic sustainability. In order to facilitate
discussion on this issue and improve knowledge about
this, we organized lectures on Small and
Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in 20 municipalities
in Vojvodina. Representatives of refugee and
domicile population, as well as the representatives
of local authorities, attended these lectures. The
lecturer was Mr.Miroslav Vasin, Deputy Secretary of
the Vojvodinian Secretariat for Labor, Employment
and Gender Equality.
More about
SMEs >>> |
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NOVI SAD
HUMANITARIAN CENTER 2004 - 2006 |
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