The processes in which refugees are returned to Croatia improved during the past five years, but there are still serious shortcomings in need of government attention. This article summarizes the findings of the draft ECRE (European Council for Refugees and Exiles) National Report for Croatia, compiled by the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. (06-SEP-07)

Written by HRH Croatia / Goran Milakovic.

According to some estimations, more than 300 000 refugees, mostly of Serb nationality, fled Croatia during the war in the early 90s. In addition, more then 200 000 Croats fled the war-affected regions, thus becoming so-called internally displaced persons (IDPs). According to the last report of the Government Office for Refugees from June 2007, the total number of registered returnees is 344 206, out of which 219 734 are internally displaced Croats and 127 472 are Serbs. However, a study carried out by the UNHCR and the Red Cross shows that only 34,8% of returnees live on their registered addresses in Croatia. While it remains difficult to know exactly how many are still waiting to return, an indication is given by the fact that there are 11.543 requests registered pending in Serbia and BiH.

Employment and tenancy rights
The greatest obstacles for the return of the remaining refugees are the absence of wider socio-economic preconditions and the pace at which the administrative procedures work, which is often much too slow. The report underlines that paradoxally, the Government office for Refugees was the main obstacle for the return of the refugees in the second half of the 90s. However, the biggest problem nowadays is the high unemployment rate, not only because the areas of return were affected by war, but because they were underdeveloped even before the war. Furthermore, some studies consulted in the report indicate that there are also unconstitutional practices at play when it comes to employing Serb returnees. According to the report, Serb returnees are underrepresented in public administration in the vast majority of areas of their return. According to Art. 22 of the Constitutional Law on National Minorities adopted in 2002, local authorities are obliged to employ proportionally according to the size of each of the ethnic and religious groups within the total population.

More than 23.00 cases of denied tenancy rights
One of the biggest remaining issues is the status of former tenancies for holders of these rights who abandoned their socially owned flats. According to court statistics, there are more than 23.000 cases all over Croatia of denied tenancy rights to those who left their premises for more than 6 months. The Report is part of the ECRE project called ´Strengthening the regional advocacy voice and policy impact of civil society on behalf of the vulnerable groups in Western Balkans´. The main aim of the project is to further develop skills and capacitiy among refugee assisting NGO´s in the areas of advocacy, media communication and policy analysis. Implementing partners in Croatia are Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and Croatian Law Centre.

ECRE (European Council on Refugees and Exiles) is a pan-European network of refugee-assisting non-governmental organisations that promotes a humane and generous European asylum policy.