The European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have ensured EUR 8.1 million to facilitate the return of refugees to their prewar homes in 10 municipalities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, officials of the EU, UNHCR and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees said in Sarajevo on Monday.
On this occasion the European Union’s special representative to Sarajevo, Peter Sorenson said that since 1996, the Union had earmarked some 500 million euros for the return of refugees and internally displaced people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Those funds have helped reconstruct 30,000 homes and created 4,500 jobs, Sorensen added.
The EU official said that an additional 8.1 million euros was designated for the most vulnerable categories of the population.
The head of the UNHCR office in Bosnia, Andrew Mayne, said the latest funds would be used to help 2,400 families, that is some 8,000 people, who still had the status of refugee or internally displaced person. Thus, it will help those whose who want to go back to their prewar homes in Bijeljina, Derventa, Bosanski Petrovac, Foca, Gradiska, Maglaj, Mostar, Prijedor, Zivinice and Brcko.
“This is not the end of our programme for caring for all who still have the status of refugees,” said the Bosnian minister for refugees, Damir Ljubic.
Currently, some 85,000 persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina are still internally displaced.
