Target : to find permanent solutions for at least 100,000 refugees and displaced persons

Returning home is more than just finding a roof. Refugee return and reintegration issues are complex and require an integrated approach, addressing problems such as housing, jobs, education, repossession of properties, and reconciliation with a regional perspective. Under the auspices of the Stability Pact, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yugoslavia agreed to resolve jointly the fate of the remaining over one million refugees and internally displaced persons. To this end, the Agenda for Regional Action (AREA) which had been launched in 2001 to identify and remove obstacles to return, at national and regional level, was updated in 2002 (AREA II), now focussing on the sustainability of return and ensuring the inclusion of the displaced and returnees into the economic recovery process.

Where do we stand now ?

Target reached: more than 135,000 persons found permanent solutions through return or integration during the first eleven months of 2002. The focussed action and better coordination by all actors in the three countries concerned has led to record numbers of minority returns in 2001 and 2002, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But living conditions of returnees remain fragile. One of the main positive trends recently has been the gradual shift in national and international perception and planning, moving displacement issues from a purely humanitarian approach to a broader development and economic perspective In Bosnia and Herzegovina, 62% of filed cases to repossess private property and tenancy rights had been solved by September 2002, up 21% since the end of the previous year. The regional process will be driven forward by the creation of a regional data exchange mechanism on pre-war property and social rights allowing for better targeted assistance and categorisation of beneficiaries. The Regional Return Initiative has launched a drive to close the remaining collective centres, where 55.000 refugees and internally displaced persons still live in precarious conditions, and to find sustainable solutions to help them start a new life.

Seeking innovative solutions to housing

In Sarajevo, an interesting model has been developed in 2002 in a bid to promote long-term solutions to the housing problem and to demonstrate the potential of public private partnerships and social investment. The Pact's Regional Return Initiative established contact between an Austrian Housing Association, which had expressed its willingness to invest outside of the EU, and the Sarajevo Canton faced with housing shortages. As an immediate result, the Austrian GPA invested 7 million Euro for construction of 164 apartments in Sarajevo. Work started in July, and the apartments will be roofed by the end of 2002. This model of public-private investment has met with great interest in the region and with potential investors. Similarly, the "Municipal Upgrading Project" in Podgorica, now requiring start-up capital, is combining the resolution of urban infrastructure and development needs through investment with displacement issues, thus demonstrating the potential of such partnerships. In-country coordination and external support capacities are being developed, in order to initiate a local approach to housing shortages and have all actors in the field to follow a consolidated line.

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