4,000 CROATIANS SUBMIT DAMAGES REQUESTS FOR LABOUR UNDER NAZIS

ZAGREB, Feb 14 (Hina) - In the past six months, the Croatian office of the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM) has received requests from some 4,000 Croatian citizens for pecuniary compensation for labour in Nazi concentration camps. "Entitled to compensation are people who were forced to work in concentration or so-called labour camps during the Nazi regime," IOM representative Maja Kurent told Hina over the telephone on Wednesday. IOM's office in Croatia began recording the compensation requests immediately after the German parliament on Aug. 12 last year adopted an act envisaging paying damages to people established to have been exploited by the Nazi regime. The deadline for submitting the requests is Aug. 11 this year, by which time the Croatian IOM Office expects to receive close to 5,000 requests, said Kurent. "Some of the people who have submitted the requests already possess evidence that they were subjected to forced labour, in the wake of a similar action launched by the Croatian Red Cross about two years ago," she told Hina. Compensation is categorised by the severity of living conditions. People who spent time in concentration camps may receive a maximum DM15,000, those in labour camps up to DM5,000, and those forced to work farmland up to DM2,000, said Kurent. "A special commission will be set up in Geneva, at IOM's headquarters, to discuss all requests and make decisions based on the duration of the stay (in the camps), and especially on the severity of the living conditions," she added. (hina) ha