THE FOLLOWING IS THE SPEECH OF THE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA IN ITS ENTIRETY:

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

I always feel it is my paramount duty to respond to the call of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and take part in your activities because your organization has made an immense contribution to one of the most difficult issues in recent decades – caring for refugees. And I am especially pleased to meet today on such a beautiful occasion – 70th jubilee of the adoption of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and 45 years of the High Commissioner for Refugees in Serbia.

I would like to congratulate all on these important dates and, on behalf of our citizens, express my gratitude for the dedicated work of all UNHCR associates and their partners, as well as our national organizations, tasked with this important and humane mission.

As you know, the Republic of Serbia has, like no other country in modern Europe, had to deal with great waves of refugees in the form of its compatriots who had to leave their homes because of war and persecution and seek salvation in our country. Our experience with hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons, their reception and efforts to provide them with a normal life, is unique in modern Europe and we would not want anyone to go through it.

In the most difficult years of the conflict in the Balkans, and especially the persecution of the Serbian population in Kosovo-Metohija, the people of Serbia and its state institutions have showed that they do have a huge hart and year after year accepted refugees and helped them start a new life here. We can all be proud of what we have done together, with great effort and patience, although to this very day we cannot say that all the refugee problems have been solved.

I do not like to talk about numbers when we talk about refugees and displaced persons, they are people with hard lives, but we must always keep in mind that in the last three decades at least half a million refugees and displaced persons have come to Serbia from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo-Metohija. Most of them decided to stay here, started families, got jobs, started a business, but the real question remains - why, decades later, is the door still not open for their return to their homes and the properties they had to leave?

Why has only one in eight or 10 of them returned to Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, and less than 2% of the displaced have gone back to Kosovo-Metohija. The refugee story always has two sides. It was Serbia's duty to accept its compatriots and give them the best it could, and we have done and still do that today. But those others have an even bigger duty to enable them to return to the homes which they had been driven from. Unfortunately, that has not happened, everything has been done to prevent their return.

Serbia will continue to help refugees as much as possible, until the last of them has all the conditions for a dignified life - a roof over their heads, schooling, employment, healthcare. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I was also in charge of the implementation of the Regional Housing Program where we built and allocated apartments to refugee families. Serbia is the largest beneficiary of this program, and so far more than six thousand families have received apartments. I travelled all over Serbia, talked to these people and I cannot forget their happiness, gratitude, whenever we had the opportunity to congratulate them on moving into new apartments.

On this occasion, I would like to express my gratitude to UNHCR and the European Union as the largest donor to this program, as well as to others, and at the same time encourage them to continue with this programme, because it is one of the most efficient and essential to solve our refugees’ chief problem - a roof over their heads.

Speaking of the refugees who have been passing through Serbia for years, on their way from Asia and Africa to Western Europe, I can only say that our country and our people have shown a humane face, which has been rare in Europe. A million people passed through Serbia in the wave of refugees, without any problems, without any health or other crisis. We helped them precisely because we have ourselves had a difficult experience with the exile of our compatriots and we know very well what it means to be expelled from your home and forced to go into the unknown. The refugee issue must not be a political issue, as it has unfortunately been treated in much of Europe and the world. It is just a matter of humanity and willingness to help someone in trouble. That is how we see it.

In that sense, I would like to once again emphasise the immense importance the High Commissioner for Refugees, our valuable partner and friend, has today in its humanitarian mission. This is our common mission, we will continue it at all levels and with full strength because it is our obligation to the people who desperately need this kind of support.

Thank you!"