A survey conducted by the PULS agency shows that most refugees will stay where they are, but there is a certain potential for return, so all those wishing to return should be enabled to do so, OSCE Mission chief in Croatia Peter Semneby said at the news conference, which was also attended by Sea, Transport and Communications Minister Bozidar Kalmeta and Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul.
The Croatian government and the OSCE, in cooperation with partners from the international community, have therefore decided to launch a campaign to inform all interested Croatian refugees about conditions for sustainable return which were provided by the Croatian government.
Semneby told reporters that the campaign had three goals - motivating refugees and displaced persons to decide to return on the basis of information; promoting reconciliation, tolerance and multicultural society in places of return with the aim of building an integrated society; and helping Croatian authorities to implement the policy making it possible for all who want to return to do so.
Apart from reliable information, sustainable return also requires other conditions, the most important one being access to accommodation and economic possibilities, as evidenced by the PULS survey, Semneby said.
Minister Kalmeta said that his ministry was implementing most of the programmes of sustainable return and added that this year alone around 1.9 billion kuna would be invested in return programmes. Since the start of the reconstruction process, 14.4 billion kuna worth of reconstruction works was carried out on 128,000 houses and flats, 208 school buildings were repaired, which cost eight million kuna, and the same amount will be invested in the reconstruction of another 140 schools in the next two years. A total of 13,680 housing units were returned to their owners, while the whereabouts of another 3,890 owners are still unknown, Kalmeta said.
The economic recovery of places of return is one of the key interests of the incumbent government, which is working on the social and economic revival of those areas, which includes the new Law on Areas of Special State Interest, which will go into force soon, Kalmeta said.
He recalled that the extended deadline for the submission of reconstruction requests expired at the end of September. Returnees who formerly had tenancy rights have the right to submit applications for housing accommodation by the end of the year.
"The Croatian government is determined to continue towards building a better future and healing the wounds of the past," Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul said while speaking about the political aspects of sustainable return.
The return of all refugees wishing to return will be financed from the budget, but it is yet not known how much the entire project would cost, because it is not known how many refugees will decide to return, Kalmeta said.
However, it is certain that former tenancy rights holders will be accommodated either in rented flats or by buying flats from the government-sponsored programme of housing construction.
Zuzul warned that a large number of refugees had already returned and that the latest data referred only to those who had not returned yet.
Minister Kalmeta's assistant for displaced persons and refugees, Lovre Pejkovic, said that of the estimated 300,000 refugees, 112,000 had returned to Croatia so far. This figure includes both those who have stayed in Croatia and those who have sold or swapped their property and left the country, he said.