Following the breakup of Yugoslavia and massive displacement within the region in the 1990’s, Serbia hosted over 560,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and 210,000 IDPs from Kosovo (S/RES/1244 (1999)[1] . Since 2015, Serbia has been affected by the European Refugee and Migrant Situation (ERS), with more than a million people transiting the country spring 2015 to spring 2016. Since mid-2016, the situation of new refugees, asylum seekers and migrants evolved into prolonged stay, and a respective adaptation of response focusing on protection and solutions.
UNHCR assisted Serbia in the 1990s initially with emergency reception and accommodation of refugees and IDPs from the region, and subsequently with facilitating voluntary return or local integration, including through the Regional Housing Programme (RHP). More recently, UNHCR assisted the Government in emergency response to the massive influx during the European Refugee Situation by providing emergency shelter, food and non-food aid, as well as protection support. Faced with longer staying populations, during 2016-2017 humanitarian responses were converted to more sustainable developmental and institutional protection and solutions interventions.
[1] Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999)
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