Cornerstone for the construction of 235 apartments for refugees from BiH and Croatia will be laid today in the settlement Ovča near Belgrade. Apartments will be built thanks to donor funds, with participation of Serbia, within the Regional Housing Programme. Cornerstone will be laid by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dačić, who is also the President of the Commission of the Government of Serbia for coordination of the process of permanent integration of refugees.
It was announced that the ceremony in Ovča will be attended by the Head of EU Delegation in Serbia Michael Davenport, ambassadors of USA and OSCE, Kyle Scott and Peter Burkhard, representative of the UNHCR Francesca Bonelli, and Commissioner for refugees and migrations of Serbia Vladimir Cucić.
Construction of apartments worth 2.3 million EUR is financed by the City of Belgrade, which provided construction land, documentation and infrastructure, while the remaining funds will be provided by Council of Europe Development Bank. Apartments should be finished by the end of 2017. Regional Housing Programme is a joint program of Serbia, BiH, Montenegro and Croatia, aimed at ensuring permanent residential solutions for nearly 27.000 most endangered refugee families, i.e. for around 74.000 people in the region.
(Source: hayat.ba)
