Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2010 - Bosnia and Herzegovina

The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina led to the internal displacement of over a million people and the creation of ethnically homogeneous areas within the newly independent state. Estimates of the number of people remaining internally displaced fell following successive registration exercises. At the end of 2010, 113,400 IDPs remained, many of them older or vulnerable people who needed specific assistance. 7,000 IDPs were still living in decrepit collective centres.

By 2010, 580,000 IDPs had returned to their places of origin, but the rate of return had considerably slowed. Violence in return areas had declined, but discrimination continued to limit returnees' access to livelihoods and public services.

Many IDPs and returnees continued to live in precarious situations, with no adequate housing, economic opportunities or support. In December, flash floods in the north and east led to the evacuation of 40,000 people, including about 10,000 IDPs, from their damaged or destroyed properties.

Social services were provided in different areas by the two governing entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Sprska; as a result pensions and other social benefits were lower in certain areas.

From the end of the war, the government and international agencies promoted return to the exclusion of other settlement options, so as not to cement the "ethnic cleansing" which motivated the displacement. However, in June 2010, the government adopted a new strategy recognising the need to compensate people for lost property and to assist IDPs who cannot or do not want to return.

Only a few international organisations were still working to support IDPs, among them OSCE, UNHCR and UNDP. The EU also continued to influence government policy in favour of IDPs through the process of Bosnia's candidacy.