World Refugee Day: Contracts for the purchase of apartments for 60 refugee families handed over in Belgrade

On World Refugee Day, contracts for the purchase of 60 apartments were handed over in Belgrade, intended for refugee families from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia residing in the territory of the city of Belgrade. The purchase of apartments is part of the Regional Housing Program that is being implemented in the Republic of Serbia.

"I would like you to remember June 20 not only as a refugee day, but as the day when you got your home and finally solved the housing issue. Years of uncertainty are behind you, you have been forced to flee persecution and war, and you have had a difficult time. Let these apartments that you get today be the first, but important step towards a safer and better life," said the director of the Public Sector Projects Implementation Unit Ltd. Belgrade, Dušan Kovačević.

The ceremony was also attended by State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Serbia Nemanja Starović, Secretary of the Secretariat for Social Welfare of the City of Belgrade Nataša Stanisavljevic, Representative of the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia Nikola Bertolini, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Jan Bratu, Acting Head of the UNHCR Representative Office in Serbia Stephanie Krause, Head of the Cooperation Office of the Embassy of Switzerland in Serbia Richard Holly and Commissioner for Refugees and Migration Vladimir Cucić.

The Regional Housing Programme is a joint multi-year programme of the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Croatia, which aims to provide durable housing solutions for the most vulnerable refugee families in the region.

It is supported by the OSCE, UNHCR and the Council of Europe Development Bank, and is funded by the European Union, which is also the largest donor, the United States, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Luxembourg, Spain, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.