QUESTION: How many people returned to their pre-war addresses, and how many are still internally displaced, or refugees?

ANSWER: Since the signing of the Dayton Agreement, about 1,062,000 returnees have been recorded, which is about half of the total of 2.2 million refugees and displaced persons who left their homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period 1991-1995. year. Of the total number of returns, about 611,000 refer to the return of displaced persons, and about 451,000 to the return of refugees.

The number of internally displaced persons has significantly decreased compared to the million displaced in 1995 - today we have 32,038 families, or 96,480 persons.

According to the annual statistical report of the UNHCR for 2018, another 17,669 persons from Bosnia and Herzegovina have the status of refugees in the world. Of that number, there are 8,764 in Serbia, 4,085 in France, 2,026 in Switzerland, 1,478 in Germany...

From 1992-1995. , about 453,000 housing units were partially or completely destroyed, that is, almost half of the pre-war housing stock in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is estimated that around 344,000 housing units have been renovated so far, which is two thirds of the destroyed housing stock.

In the period 2015–2019. Around 3,000 housing units were renovated in 2011, half of which - 1,555 - were renovated through projects led by our Ministry.

QUESTION: What are the key projects of the Ministry in the field of return of refugees and internally displaced persons?

ANSWER: In order to provide housing for the most vulnerable displaced persons and refugees from the region, significant projects are being implemented from donor and credit funds:

- Regional housing program,

- Project "Closing collective centers - CEB II",

- Housing Fund Reconstruction Project - OPEC,

- The project of reconstruction of housing units of refugees, which is financed by loans from the Saudi Fund for Development - SFD,

- The assistance program of the Government of the Republic of Croatia to support the return of Croats from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the goal of which is the restoration and reconstruction of housing units

QUESTION: What are the results and initial value of the Regional Housing Program?

ANSWER: Thanks to the Regional Housing Program, a total of 3,200 housing units will be built by the end of 2021 for the most vulnerable refugees, displaced persons and returnees to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

By the end of May 2019, almost 900 housing units were completed. By the end of 2019, it is planned to move in another 700 houses and apartments, and the rest during 2020 and 2021.

It is a program that is implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro and through which a roof over the heads of around 11,500 most vulnerable families - or 34,000 people - will be provided by the end of 2021 at the level of these four countries.

The total value of the project is 290 million euros, of which 80% is donor funds, and 20% is the participation of countries (building land, permits, infrastructure, etc.).

Thanks to the Regional Housing Program, by the middle of 2019, more than 4,500 vulnerable families in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Croatia and Montenegro have been taken care of, and 30,000 jobs have been secured, and 1,000 contracts for construction and related services have been awarded to local companies.

QUESTION: How many people have asked for help under the Regional Housing Program?

ANSWER: More than 26,000 family requests were received to the public call for applications for assistance under the Regional Housing Program from 2013. This best illustrates the real interest in returning, which apparently still very much exists.

Almost 18,000 applications related to return, of which about 8,000 were applications for return from the countries of the region and the rest for the return of displaced persons within BiH. About 8,100 applications related to requests for the construction of houses in places of displacement, while about 760 applications were rejected due to failure to meet the conditions of the invitation.

QUESTION: How many citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina live in collective centers, and what is being done to permanently close collective centers in our country?

ANSWER: According to data from 2015, more than 7,200 people lived in 121 collective centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Residents of collective centers are people in a state of social need, elderly and sick people, refugees and displaced people without or with minimal income. Most of them are people who did not have property even before the war, and the most acceptable way to provide them with a decent life is reflected in the system of non-profit social housing.

It is the European model for dealing with the most socially vulnerable categories of residents and a way to evict our citizens from the inhumane conditions that exist mostly in the collective centers where they live today.

Thanks to the project CEB 2 - Closure of collective centers in 2018, 190 people moved into 6 newly built buildings in Kladnje, Maglaj, Modriča and Derventa intended for tenants of collective centers.

Through the CEB 2 project, for which Bosnia and Herzegovina has borrowed 60 million euros from the Development Bank of the Council of Europe, the construction or reconstruction of a total of 82 buildings/objects with more than 2,600 housing units in 45 cities and municipalities is planned until the end of 2022.

By the end of 2018, according to the Project, works on the construction of 6 buildings with 113 apartments were completed, and in 2019, the construction of another 15 buildings was started, within which 602 apartments will be provided, which will be home to more than 1,500 people. During 2018, the Bank approved an extension of the deadline for the completion of the Project until 12/31/2022.

QUESTION: How many people originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina live in the world, that is, how numerous is the Bosnian diaspora?

ANSWER: According to the records of the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, there are about two million people of BiH origin living in 51 countries around the world.

1,671,177 people born in BiH live outside our country, while with descendants this number reaches two million. The rate of emigration from BiH in relation to the number of the population in the country is 44.5%, which ranks BiH among the countries with the highest number of emigration in relation to the total number of the population.

The largest number of emigrants live in: Croatia (409,357), Serbia (335,992), Germany (159,380), Austria (149,755), USA (132,255), Slovenia (96,921), Switzerland (57,542) and Sweden (56,477).

The status of emigrants from BiH in the receiving countries is largely resolved through the acquisition of citizenship, permanent or temporary residence permits, work and student visas.

The Ministry's data show that at least half a million emigrants have acquired citizenship of the receiving countries (excluding Serbia and Croatia). In some countries, the percentage of emigrants who have resolved their status through the acquisition of citizenship of the receiving country is extremely high (80-90%).

The average age of emigrants is around 40 years, most of them have a secondary education, while 10-30 percent of emigrants have a university degree. They are well integrated in the receiving countries, they are economically active, with a high employment rate and stable incomes.

QUESTION: More than two decades have passed since the end of the war, what is the obstacle to ending the return process in our country?

ANSWER: The key obstacles to the return process are:

- the necessary renovation of housing units that must be built and renovated for the essential implementation of Annex VII of the Dayton Peace Agreement,

- ensuring the conditions for a sustainable return is displaced persons often fear that they will lose their acquired rights in the places of displacement (health and social protection) by returning, and often because of this displaced persons do not register with the places of return,

- the right to equal access to education, studying a national group of subjects, etc.,

- failure to process incidents to the detriment of returnees (they qualify as misdemeanors, not as criminal acts),

- impossibility of employment, access to social and communal infrastructure, etc.

- national imbalance in public institutions in the places of return, i.e. non-compliance with the employment obligation in the percentage that reflects the census from 1991.

QUESTION: What can be done to prevent hate speech and the activities of fascist and neo-fascist organizations?

ANSWER: The Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees has repeatedly initiated the introduction of provisions into the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina punishing hate speech and prohibiting the activities of fascist and neo-fascist organizations.

Because societies in which the appearance of hate speech and the activities of fascist and neo-fascist organizations are tolerated are not protected, free and democratic. Creating the impression that inciting social contempt, conveying negative stereotypes, discrimination, hostility and fear-mongering is acceptable – even desirable or even patriotic behavior – is a sign of deep social problems that we must fight against.

From the aspect of the protection of human rights, it is important to emphasize that the prevention of hate speech, gatherings and associations of fascist and neo-fascist movements, with the aim of stigmatizing individual of other social groups is one of the justified reasons for restricting the freedom of public expression and the reason for the reaction of all social groups.

Tolerating or approving such retrograde phenomena endangers the safety not only of returnees but of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also of the region, which is why the organizers and participants must be punished, and such unprecedented gatherings prohibited.

Action towards this goal requires the dedicated engagement of all actors - governmental and non-governmental institutions and international organizations that inherit the values ​​of human rights, anti-fascism and democracy, in which there is no place for civilizationally defeated and rejected ideologies.

QUESTION: What is the role of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees in the context of the influx of migrants and their transit through Bosnia and Herzegovina?

ANSWER: The Ministry is responsible for taking care of foreign nationals who are granted refugee status or subsidiary protection by the Ministry of Security. Since the increased influx of migrants in BiH began, no migrant has been granted refugee status. In 2018, 14 foreign citizens were granted subsidiary protection, of which only one person can be linked to migrants. It is about a child from Syria who was placed in the Home for neglected children in Mostar and whose stay was covered by the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees.

On the basis of the conclusion of the Council of Ministers, which ordered that the available capacities of the state be made available to ensure accommodation capacities for migrants, the Ministry offered free capacities in the Salakovac Center.

By mid-2019, more than a thousand migrants, mostly families with children, had passed through the Center.

The Salakovac Center, which is managed by the Ministry with the significant help of domestic and international partners, is a positive example of the functioning of the reception center where, in addition to conditional accommodation and food on the basis of three meals a day, primary health care, children's vaccinations, informal education through language learning, translators are provided, a children's corner has been created...

In the context of the influx of migrants, the Ministry, in cooperation with partners from international organizations, primarily UNICEF and partner non-governmental organizations, pays special attention to monitoring and monitoring the respect of children's rights in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The focus is on children unaccompanied by guardians, for whom, according to the Convention, the state is obliged to provide guardianship and for which a system has been established at the local level with the help of centers for social work, international and civil sector organizations in our country.