Thanks to the European Union, U.S., UNHCR and OSCE, which donated funds, 27,000 refugee and displaced families with 74, 000 members will receive a flat, house or building material under the Regional Housing Programme.
After more than two decades of living as subtenants, in collective centres, with cousins and friends, thousands of refugees will get roof over their heads. In the next four years, €335.2 million will be spent on housing around 16,780 most vulnerable refugee families with around 45,000 members in Serbia, “Vecernje novosti” reports.
All of them will get a roof over their head under the Regional Housing Programme. Its total value is €584 million, from which Serbia receives the largest part. In order to put an end to the refugee story, Bosnia and Herzegovina will receive €101 million for housing 5,400 families within this project, Croatia receives €11, 4 million for 3,541 families, and Montenegro €27.6 million for 1,177 families. Thanks to the European Union, U.S., UNHCR and OSCE, which donated funds, a total of 27,000 families with 74,000 members will receive a flat, house or building material.
EU the biggest donor
The biggest donor is the European Union, followed by the Government of the U.S. Initial idea was to raise several billions EUR, but that sum was too high, so the project was rationalised to €584 million, from which donors allocate 500 million, and host countries a total of €84 million. UNHCR and OSCE monitor the entire project.
The project lasts five years, and the first phase has already started. The major work will be done in Serbia, because the most numerous population of refugees is there. It is Serbia that advanced the most in preparations.
– That will be a huge job and we hope that everyone who participate in it will manage to carry it out until the end and in time – Milos Terzan for UNHCR Programme Department in Belgrade begins the story for “Novosti“.
– Call for the first phase was announced in September and people were applying until October. Incomplete applications significantly slowed down the work. If they want to exercise their right, potential beneficiaries should make an effort to provide necessary documentation, so we could complete all steps much faster.
Exercise the right
In this, first phase, preliminary lists of families that should get packages of building material worth €9,000 or move in prefabricated houses no later than mid-2013, are made. Value of the first phase of the project is € 2.5 million and it will provide 125 packages of building material and 720 prefabricated houses. 837 applications for packages were submitted and even 209 applications for houses. All this is carried out in 22 municipalities.
In order to better inform refugee population, informative meetings are organised in municipalities, where representatives of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations and UNHCR, inform people, step by step, about their rights and how to exercise them.
– The backbone is that all those who have this right should apply and exercise it, because this is the last chance for housing of refugees from wars from 1991- 1995 – Terzan emphasises.
He explains that people are a little worried because they do not know when and in which municipality some kind of help will be offered. Also, some people apply for help in Serbia and, for example, in BiH or Croatia at the same time. And the goal of the regional project was precisely not to duplicate the help, but to help families in the country they chosen to live in – whether that was the country of their origin or the country from which they escaped.
Second and third phase
Even before the completion of the first phase, the second phase will begin. In March 2014, public calls should be announced. At the meeting in Paris, Assembly of Donors approved €12.5 million for Serbia for that phase. 300 packages of building material, 120 prefabricated houses, 200 flats with fixed term lease and with possibility of redemption, as well as 250 rural households with infield, will be granted.
Assembly of Donors meeting was recently held and on that occasion funds for the projects of the third phase were approved. The project in Croatia will be €4.3 million worth, and in Serbia €11 million. Housing problems of the refugee population living in Belgrade will be solved with these funds. Social flats, prefabricated houses, rural households with infield and packages of building material will be provided for 715 families in the wider territory of the capital city.
Source: “Vecernje novosti“
