The Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM implemented the project Emphasizing Human Rights in the Areas of Special State Concern in partnership with the Center for Peace Studies (CMS) of the Republic of Croatia. For the purposes of this project a research was conducted with the aim to map the reasons why the citizens of Serbian nationality who had fled during the war 1991-1995 failed to return to Croatia, regardless of whether they still held the status of refugees or not. It was examined whether the return and integration were possible at all, and if not, what obstacles prevented the return.
Interviews were conducted with the youths aged 18-35, the so called ”second generation of migrants” who could be potential returnees and who provided a deeper insight into the problems this generation was facing in the country in which they lived.
The results have indicated that the problem of the return of the Serbs to Croatia is very complex. Attitudes and opinions towards possible return to Croatia are of very rational and economic nature. Furthermore, refugees are often insufficiently informed about laws and measures conditioning their possible return. Such findings suggest that adequate actions should be undertaken in order to raise the awareness and increase the number of possible returnees, since due to ignorance, real opportunities cannot be gleaned and attitudes are formed.
The research findings were presented in the Study published by Yucom and CMS (available at: http://www.cms.hr/system/publication/pdf/20/Studija_izbegli_Hrvatska__ENG_fin.pdf ).