CROATIA IS NOT DEPORTING BOSNIAN REFUGEES - GOVT OFFICE

ZAGREB, Feb 12 (Hina) - Between January 16 and February 9, the Government Office for Refugees has moved 1,329 refugees from 17 facilities, the Office said today in a statement. 151 people have been moved to the Gasinci facility in eastern Slavonia, 368 moved in with their relatives, 17 went abroad, 4 cancelled their refugee status, and 700 returned, by their own free will, to the Bosnian Federation (the cantons of Bihac, Tuzla, Zenica, Sarajevo and Orasje), the statement specified. The statement added that 83 people, mostly high school students and sick and elderly people, were moved from illegal refugee centres in Zagreb and accommodated in a refugee facility in Zagreb's neighbourhood of Zaprudje. The statement recalled that the transfer of refugees had been motivated by the need to rationalise refugee care and reduce costs. The Office began by moving refugees from ramshackle barracks and wagons, which was followed by the closing down of illegal refugee care facilities. Such an illegal facility was situated in Velika Gorica south of Zagreb. Most of the refugees accommodated there were registered as living at private addresses in Zagreb. The facility was financed by a humanitarian organisation called 'Al Haramain' which did not have the licence of the Ministry of Labour and Welfare for distributing humanitarian aid in Croatia, the statement explained. "The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees was duly notified of the transfers," the statement said, stressing that refugees were not being "expelled, deported or moved to 'collection centres' as had been suggested by certain international organisations and the media." "The refugees have been moved to facilities offering better accommodation. None of them has lost refugee status except those who left for Bosnia by their own free will," the statement said. Gasinci, the biggest refugee facility in Croatia, currently housed 2,544 refugees and refugees in transit, and there was still room for another 1,000 refugees. The Gasinci centre was built with the donations of foreign organisations and according to international standards for such facilities, the statement stressed. The centre included GP and geriatric surgeries, a kindergarten, playrooms, elementary school and its own bus line, according to the statement. Part of the facility was managed by UNHCR as a transit centre, which currently housed 1,450 refugees, the statement said. (hina) mm as 121856 MET feb 96