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The Republic of Serbia is the leading country in the region in terms of cared for refugee families

Commissioner for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia Nataša Stanisavljević made a guest appearance on “Novo Jutro” morning programme on Pink TV talking about the successes of refugee housing, care provided to refugees thus far as well as plans for the coming period. On that occasion, the Commissioner pointed out that after the completion of the Regional Housing Programme Republic of Serbia will be the leading country in the Region in terms of taking care of refugee families.

“We have taken care of 6,972 families within the Regional Housing Program, of which we have allocated 2,266 packages of construction materials, 383

houses, 1,727 country houses with a garden and 2,596 apartments. The largest part of the funds comes from Donor funds and we plan to provide housing for another 472 families in the next month. In the coming period we expect to move into newly built facilities in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Arandjelovac, Pančevo, Vrbas and Pećinci, which will exceed the number of 7,000 families and thus make us the leading country in the region in terms of housing for refugees”, said Commissioner Stanisavljević.

The Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, the City of Belgrade and the Ministry of Public Investments have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation enabling the completion of facilities in Belgrade with which the Republic of Serbia has had the most difficulties so far.

“Newly built apartments in Belgrade are almost finished. In the next month, we expect the move in Ovča which will house 250 families of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia, while apartments will be built in Dr. Ivan Ribar suburb where we will take care of another 133 refugee families. Until now, Republic of Serbia has never left anyone halfway and continually finds a way to help people who had to leave their homes and who chose Serbia as the country in which they want to integrate, even after 30 years. From September till today we delivered 229 housing solutions and 120 packages of construction materials, 15 modular houses, 25 rural houses and we are not stopping there. From July to the end of the year and from the budget of the Republic of Serbia we plan to allocate another 194 packages of construction materials and 134 rural houses with a garden through four public invitations that we have published”, Commissioner Stanisavljević said.

As a guest on “Novo Jutro” morning programme on Pink TV, Commissioner Nataša Stanisavljević also referred to the topic of migrants in our country and emphasized that the Republic of Serbia and the Commissariat responsibly and humanely take care of all persons who need the protection of our country and accentuated the cooperation that the Commissariat has with the Ministry of Interior when it comes to combating irregular migration.

“In our country, there are currently 2,252 people located in 13 Centres, and each of the migrants who passed through our Centres received accommodation, food, clothing, medical care and humane contact from those who work with them, and the children staying in Centres are enrolled in mainstream education schooling. Our goal is for all migrants from illegal camps to be accommodated in the Centres because they are targeted by traffickers in illegal camps. Migrants currently residing in the Centres are predominately from Afghanistan, Syria, Morocco, Pakistan and Somalia”, the Commissioner pointed out.

In the coming period, Commissariat for Refugees and Migration will continue cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and other dedicated institutions to monitor migratory flows, manage migration and work preventively on the relocation of migrants from illegal camps to Reception Centres, Commissioner Stanisavljević concluded.