RHP: 20 Refugee Families receives Apartments in Vrnjacka Banja

Twenty families of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia received new apartments in Vrnjacka Banja as part of the Regional Housing Program (RHP). The works worth € 600,000 lasted from October 2017 to March 2019.

EU Delegation, which is the largest single donor to the program, was represented by Head of Operations II, Steffen Hudolin, who wished all the best to the winners of the roof over his head.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic says the settled housing issue is a fresh start for these families.

“Memories certainly cannot be erased, but I am quite sure that these days we are creating new memories in which all of you here base the serenity and warmth of home,” says Minister Dacic.

The Serbian Foreign Minister says that many institutions are involved in the RHP, and that he is a true example of mutual support and cooperation between the European Union and Serbia.

Refugee Commissioner Vladimir Cucić says Vrnjacka Banja is one of the municipalities that received the most refugees in the 1990s and that there were three collective centers on its territory, while it was among the first to accept refugees from vulnerable groups.

RHP is a joint multi-year program of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia that aims to provide permanent housing solutions for the region’s most vulnerable refugee families. It is supported by the European Union, the OSCE, Switzerland, the United States of America, Norway, Italy, Germany and other partners and countries. The EU has so far provided over € 140 million to the RHP.