Bosnia and Herzegovina: Broader and improved support for durable solutions required

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31 December 2012

Generalised violence, armed conflict between Yugoslav, Croatian and Bosnian armed forces and militias and human rights violations led to the internal displacement of more than a million people during the 1992 to 1995 war, and the creation of ethnically homogenous areas within the newly formed independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of the end of 2012, it was still hosting around 103,000 IDPs.

Not all returnees have achieved a durable solution. Improved security and the prospect of being able to repossess and rebuild their homes prompted many IDPs to return, but many have experienced continued security incidents and only limited access to roads, water and electricity. Many lack health insurance and struggle to access pensions and social benefits. Only around 360 people returned during 2012.

IDPs unable or unwilling to return continue to face obstacles to local integration. Roma people in particular struggle to obtain identity documents, without which they are unable to access services, get a job or vote. More than 8,600 IDPs still live in dilapidated collective centres, many of them among the most vulnerable groups such as those with physical or mental disabilities, chronic illnesses, or no income or family support.

The government drafted new legislation in December 2012 which, after years of focusing on return, will expand support beyond IDPs' places of origin. In line with this shift, some IDPs were given new housing to help them integrate locally. Multiple donors funded a regional programme under the 2005 Sarajevo Process, to provide housing to refugees and a small number of IDPs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the region.

Despite its historic policy of exclusively supporting the return of IDPs to their places of origin, the government in Bosnia and Herzegovina has increasingly recognised the need to assist the most vulnerable among them, who cannot or do not want to return. The Gornja Kolonija collective centre in the town of Jablanica, where more than 1,500 IDPs had taken refuge during the conflict, was closed in September 2010, after the last nine residents had been rehoused in a new four-storey block built on land provided by the Jablanica municipal authorities.  

In the general elections held in early October, IDPs were able to register to vote either in the municipalities where they lived prior to 1991 (in person or by absentee ballot) or in the municipalities where they now live. Over 22,000 chose to vote in their municipalities of origin. In 2009, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated the number of IDPs in Bosnia and Herzegovina at almost 114,000.