18th December 2012 - a ceremony held at the Palace "Serbia" marked the International Day of Migrants and twentieth anniversary of the International Organization for Migration in Serbia (IOM).

The event was attended by the Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic, HE Ambassador Vincent Deger, Head of EU Delegation in Serbia, HE Ambassador Laura Thompson, Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration, Reant Held, Regional Director for Eastern, South Eastern Europe and Central Asia, International Organization for Migration, Lidija Markovic, Head of the International Organization for Migration in Serbia, Vladimir Cucić Commissioner for Refugees and Migration and a number of senior officials of the Republic of Serbia, representatives of the diplomatic corps and representatives of numerous international organizations.

During the speech, the Commissioner for Refugees and Migration congratulated Jubilee colleagues from IOM and thanked for their support in resolving the problems of refugees and displaced persons in the past two decades. The Commissioner pointed out that since the beginning of the war and the emergence of refugees in Serbia, IOM is an extremely important partner in the care of refugees and a particularly important moments in cooperation singled out two factors essential to creating a modern and comprehensive system for managing migration in Serbia where the expertise and efforts of IOM in the last four years was exceptional - as local action plans and the adoption of migration management.

 
"In 2008.  into the ISP project, funded by the European Union implemented the project on training and local level on the development of local action plans and the importance of local planning in the municipalities and cities took a proactive stance in addressing the problem of refugees and internally displaced persons, and respond to user needs.  After the project, we continued with the training and development of LAP and today we have 126 municipalities with approved LAPs, and 80% of municipalities have opted budget line for solving problems of this population. A number of donors and the international community have recognized the LAPs as a successful implementation mechanism, and LAPs is launched and ideas to address the issue of migrants at the local level through the establishment of local councils for migration which now has 128. IOM has continued through subsequent projects to develop the capacity of local councils to promote migration and local action plans to include another category of migrants - returnees upon readmission. The existence of LAP is also important for regional project that should provide housing for 16,800 families where it is necessary to demonstrate the willingness of municipalities to implement the project. In this way, the local planning of the pilot project has become a major element of the mechanism for the implementation of migration policies in Serbia", said Commissioner Cucić.

A particularly important moment in cooperation with IOM, the Commissioner said is the improvement of the central government level to manage migration and to expand the jurisdiction of our house in migration management: "We are extremely grateful to IOM for recognizing the need and willingness to become Commissioner of the State organ to analyze migration flows and to try to ensure a coordinated migration policy in the country ", added Commissioner Cucić.

The Commissioner reminded those present that with the adoption of the Law on Migration Management in November this year, the process of migration is also legally completed. "With the support of the European Union and cooperation with the International Organization for Migration which  has trained more than 500 officers at the local level, members of the local council for migration in the territory of Serbia . Migration profiles for 2010 and 2011 were adopted as well as “Manual Protection of migrant’s rights in the Republic of Serbia", "Manual on the basis of migration management in the Republic of Serbia", and the best practices in the implementation of the LAP s.  Number of institutional and legislative analysis and important studies in the field of migration – demographic studies, the integration of immigrants, the reintegration of returnees, were made as well.  The results of these studies have helped us in mapping the main migration trends and challenges, "said the Commissioner.