ZAGREB, Nov 28 (Hina) - The Immigration Committee of parliament's House of Representatives on Tuesday voiced discontent with the government's refusal to adopt a motion by the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry to pay pension
supplements to Croatian citizens who earned their pension in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The supplements would raise pensions below the Croatian average to the average 1,093 kuna ($123). The Labour Ministry made a motion to that effect following frequent complaints from Bosnian Croat pensioners saying the low pensions prevented them from meeting the bare necessities in Croatia. In Croatia there are 20,560 pensioners who earned their pensions in neighbouring Bosnia. Pensions from Bosnia's Croat-Muslim federation, small as they are, are very late in arriving, while the other entity, the Bosnian Serb republic, has not even started paying them despite the introduction of payment operation
ZAGREB, Nov 28 (Hina) - The Immigration Committee of parliament's
House of Representatives on Tuesday voiced discontent with the
government's refusal to adopt a motion by the Labour and Social
Welfare Ministry to pay pension supplements to Croatian citizens
who earned their pension in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The supplements would raise pensions below the Croatian average to
the average 1,093 kuna ($123).
The Labour Ministry made a motion to that effect following frequent
complaints from Bosnian Croat pensioners saying the low pensions
prevented them from meeting the bare necessities in Croatia.
In Croatia there are 20,560 pensioners who earned their pensions in
neighbouring Bosnia. Pensions from Bosnia's Croat-Muslim
federation, small as they are, are very late in arriving, while the
other entity, the Bosnian Serb republic, has not even started
paying them despite the introduction of payment operations.
The Immigration Committee is debating pensions earned in Bosnia for
the fourth time since the government has been turning a deaf ear to
the issue, said chairman Milan Kovac. He stressed this kind of
attitude towards Croats from Bosnia was inadmissible because they
were the ones who suffered the most during last decade's conflict,
losing both home and income. The committee will, therefore, propose
to the government to settle the issue immediately by passing an
appropriate act, he said.
According to Assistant Labour and Social Welfare Minister Ruzica
Terze, the government turned the motion down as it brought other
Croatian pensioners, as well as numerous people on social welfare,
into an unequal position. It would also call for securing
additional funds which the budget lacks, so the government
recommended to competent ministries to settle the issue through the
social welfare system.
Representatives of pensioners from Bosnia who attended the session
objected to receiving social welfare and once again urged the
government to receive pensions as Croatian citizens who earned them
in Bosnia when it was a constituent republic of the former Yugoslav
federation.
(hina) ha jn