Balkanizer

CROSS-POST: Is it about Kosovo, or the refugees from Kosovo?

June 26th, 2007 by kb

posted by tijana on nEUrosis, June 22nd

A recent TV news programme on B92 (an informative, non-scandalous and hence often denounced TV station in Serbia) showed a so called “shelter” in Belgrade for the internally-displaced people from Kosovo. This dilapidated building contains about fifty people, who all happen to share one bathroom. A three or four-member family often occupies a single room, which also has a stove inside and serves as a kitchen.

These people have been living in such conditions ever since the bombing of Serbia in 1999, when they were forced to leave Kosovo. The Serbian authorities are paying for their utilities in this building. And that’s about it. Some of the refugees have also managed to get some money to start building their own houses in Belgrade. However, allegedly, they could not get the legal building permits from the authorities, which is why they cannot introduce electricity in their new homes. Naturally, they are complaining that they are not getting enough help from the Serbian government. The officials say they’re doing all in their power to help them.

In the meantime, the government keeps repeating that Serbia will never renounce Kosovo. None of these refugees is thinking of ever coming back to the disputed province. Yet for our politicians it’s the land that matters, we’ll deal with the people later.

In the light of the World Refugee Day on Wednesday, Serbian news agencies announced that the country has the largest number of refugees in Europe (currently 105,000) and occupies the sixth place in the world. Bear in mind that this number does not include more than 200,000 internally-displaced people from Kosovo. The majority of these have been unemployed for more than a year. Recent research showed that when they eventually do find a job, it’s way below their professional qualifications.

So what does the international community do? So many refugees indeed depend on the help of the UNHCR. However, I recently ran into a refugee who was protesting in front of the UNHCR office in Belgrade. He says that the UNHCR wanted to put him in a psychiatric institution (although there was nothing wrong with his mental health) because they didn’t know what else to do with him. He actually looked quite sane.

After he had escaped from the war in Croatia, he was helped by the UNHCR, only to flee to the UK. However, he had to be repatriated recently. According to him, the UNCHR obviously thinks that the best way to assist him is to place him in an asylum. Yet, I won’t dare to draw any broader conclusions; this is an isolated case after all. Or, perhaps there are there others, less brazen to speak up?

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