Almost seven years have passed since the beginning of the project of construction of collective buildings for refugees and displaced persons in Mostar. 72 apartments will finally be occupied by people who lived in dilapidated collective housing. The goal is to provide an adequate home with better living conditions, as well as the closing of collective centers in the very core of the city. Unfortunately, three residential buildings are not enough for all refugees who have been in this area for years.
Ibro‘s family was not on the list for the allocation of new housing units in the collective building, and every request he made to the authorities regarding his case, he emphasizes, remained unfulfilled. The only offer is accommodation in another collective settlement, but Ibro Merdzo refuses it, fearing that he will never get four walls worthy of life. That’s how he will face this winter in a dilapidated shack, because he’s been there for more than 20 years anyway. He will manage, he says, and somehow he will protect the bad windows from the wind and cold.
“In this shack, winter looks awful, the worst. This shack has no foundation, no windows, everything is leaking down the windows, the roof is half-broken, everything is half-broken. I don’t have a tub to perform personal hygiene, we are all sick here,” says Ibro.
The service for displaced persons states that a certain number of people do not want to return to their pre-war property, and there are fewer and fewer alternative accommodations in the city of Mostar. What they can offer is the Bafo settlement, which is often rejected, since such accommodations have long since become dilapidated and bad.
“With the federal ministry, we are trying to find the means to build one or two more housing units in the Bafo settlement in order to completely close the collective centers and also rebuild the transit settlement that was in Bafo,” says Elvedin Gadara, head of the Social Affairs Department, Service for Social and Housing Affairs, Health, Displaced Persons and Refugees.
The list for new accommodation was issued eight years ago. Displaced persons from the Mostar collective centers were included in it, and the ranking was based on several factors, one of which was the culture of housing in previous years.
“It must have been done according to some public invitation at the time, everyone had the opportunity to participate, and I hope and believe that it was done according to the law at the time,” noted Salem Maric, president of the Mostar City Council.
Due to administrative procedures, the wait for this project was too long. Part of the list for new accommodation has been modified over the years by determining that a few have found their roof over their heads through other projects. Unfortunately, many will welcome this winter in bad conditions, hoping that their names will appear on the next lists of some new projects, Federalna reports.
E.Dz.
Photo: archive
