KNIN/ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - With the end of 2003 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) closed its last three field offices in Croatia. Thus, UNHCR shows that local humanitarian organisations can meet "many of the needs of
asylum seekers and refugees".
KNIN/ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - With the end of 2003 the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) closed its last three field offices
in Croatia. Thus, UNHCR shows that local humanitarian organisations
can meet "many of the needs of asylum seekers and refugees".#L#
UNHCR issued a press release on its Internet site on Wednesday
reporting that it closed "its three local offices in Knin, Sisak and
Osijek at the end of 2003". It will continue to operate from its
central office in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.
According to the press release "Croatia has undergone enormous changes
since 1991, when UNHCR first arrived in a country then fighting for
independence".
UNHCR used to have 10 offices throughout the country "with hundreds of
staff members working to protect the rights of traumatised refugees
and overseeing convoys of trucks crossing frontlines to deliver relief
aid".
It went on to say that "by the end of 2003, over 100,000 Croatian
Serbs had returned to their homes, while an estimated 230,00
internally displaced persons had also gone back".
(Hina) ms sb