Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic told the UNHCR Executive Committee session in Geneva that even 20 years after the establishment of international presence in Kosovo, conditions for sustainable return of displaced persons have still not been secured.

The Foreign Ministry quoted Dacic as saying that, according to UNHCR data, only 12,707 internally displaced persons have returned to Kosovo, and that, due to many obstacles, including threats and violence, sustainable return is even lower and is estimated at below two per cent.

He said the small number of returnees in Kosovo was disappointing.

“Under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the return of displaced persons was one of the main tasks of international presence and the interim self-government institutions in Kosovo and Metohija,” said Dacic. (Kosovo and Metohija is the official name for what the authorities consider to be the country’s southern province)

He said the internally displaced persons living in Serbia are unable to exercise their fundamental right to freely choose between local integration and sustainable return.

The Serbian Foreign Minister said creating conditions for finding permanent and sustainable solutions for all displaced persons is for Serbia one of the key issues “whose resolution is what stabilization of the situation in the region depends on.”

He said that Serbia, as a country with a long-term displacement crisis, is also a country with the highest number of people in long-term internal displacement in Europe and added that „the number of registered people who were forced to leave their homes in Kosovo and Metohija due to ethnic hatred is 210,284, most of whom are Serbs, but this figure also includes other non-Albanian communities, Roma, Ashkali, Gorani people.”

“This is the most difficult humanitarian issue in Serbia, which, due to its duration, as well at to the fact that international community’s focus has shifted to new migratory crises in the world, has been partially relegated to the background,” Dacic added.