Global Overview 2014: people internally displaced by conflict and violence - Serbia

Number of IDPs97,300
Percentage of total population1.6%
Start of displacement situation1999
Peak number of IDPs (year)248,000 (2004)
New displacement in 20130
Causes of displacement✓ Armed conflict
✓ Generalised violence
✓ Human rights violations
Human development index64

There were around 209,000 registered IDPs in Serbia as of the end of 2013, according to the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees (SCR). They fled their Kosovo homes in 1999 in fear of reprisals from the majority Albanian population following NATO air strikes that forced the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and ended years of oppression of ethnic Albanians. The latest needs assessment, published in 2011 by the government, UNHCR and the Joint IDP Profiling Service, found that around 97,000 of the 210,000 people registered as IDPs at the time had needs related to their displacement. These were mainly in the areas of housing, access to information, employment and documentation.

The vast majority of IDPs were ethnic Serbs living in private accommodation, most of them in cities in central and southern Serbia. A small number, mostly Roma, were living in the northern province of Vojvodina.

The 2011 survey found that 74 per cent of Roma IDPs were in need. They were living in makeshift housing in informal settlements with no access to basic facilities. Nor did they have permission to live where they settled, meaning that they were unable to register their residence. More than 2,800 people, IDPs included, had been forcibly evicted since 2009 as a result. Alternative accommodation was rarely provided, though the government has said it will spend €1.2 million ($1.7 million) on housing solutions for Roma IDPs. Given their inability to register their residence and their lack of other personal documents, Roma IDPs struggle to access most of their rights.

Only around 18,000 IDPs have returned to Kosovo, and observers estimate that only around 4,000 have stayed, with most being displaced again. Obstacles to sustainable return include insecurity, discrimination, difficulties in repossessing property and recovering lost documents, the lack of economic prospects and IDPs' limited means to rebuild their homes. Only 20 per cent of displaced families surveyed in 2011 said they wanted to return to Kosovo. The September 2013 shooting of an officer from the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) and ongoing ethnically motivated attacks highlight the fragile situation there.

Eighty per cent of IDPs surveyed in 2011 said they still needed help with housing, and 39 per cent were in long-term unemployment, leaving them unable to improve their living conditions on their own. Municipalities have continued to implement action plans to help IDPs to integrate locally, and the government closed eight collective centres in 2013, leaving 14 still open that housed 1,200 people. More than 720 displaced families were either relocated or opted to receive building materials or one-off financial assistance.

IDPs in Serbia submitted around 18,000 compensation claims for destroyed property in Kosovo against the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), NATO's KFOR peacekeeping force and Kosovan institutions. Local courts rejected the claims on the basis that UNMIK and KFOR had immunity and local institutions had not been established at the time, and in November Kosovo's Constitutional Court upheld their decision. Some claimants were asked to pay the court fees and retrospective taxes on the properties they had fled from before their cases could proceed.

As of the end of 2013, the Serbian government was still to adopt an action plan to implement its national strategy for refugees and IDPs. Belgrade and Pristina signed the First Agreement on Principles Governing the Normalisation of Relations in April, but the accompanying dialogue was still to address issues relevant to IDPs. It had put measures in place to help IDPs eligible to vote in Kosovo in November. Specific mechanisms are needed to monitor the situation of internally displaced women and better protect their rights.

Following his visit to Serbia in 2013, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs, Chaloka Beyani, urged the government to facilitate durable solutions through the provision of housing, livelihoods, employment, health care, education, water and energy. He also called for the effective resolution of property disputes, including compensation when due, and IDPs' participation in local and parliamentary elections.

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