On December 4th, a special meeting was held on the premises of the UNHCR Field Office in Kraljevo for the organizations dealing with the Roma camp in Novi Pazar. We discussed the current situation in the camp.
Vesna Jankovic of the UNHCR FO in Kraljevo: the Field Office has been clearly advised that if they want to do any projects for the Roma camp of Stari Batnjik, they have to notify the commissioner for refugees in Kraljevo.
Tamara of the ICS organization wanted to know about the number of children in the camp and their age, and who among the inhabitants of the camp is the best to talk to, and how much she can trust the information she gets from the inhabitants of the camp.
Rajko of the UNHCR FO in Kraljevo informed the assembly of the aid that the UNHCR had provided for the camp thus far (tents, dishes, sponges for sleeping and heating stoves). Edip Ugljanin, the commissioner for refugees in Novi Pazar, called Rajko yesterday with the news that they were already out on the ground checking the land assigned for the dislocation of the Roma camp. No decision has been made yet on whether to move the camp before the housing containers arrive or whether to wait for the containers. Thirty containers have been provided for the Roma camp. The problem is also that some of the tents were damaged in the fire some time ago. Rajko says that the inhabitants of the camp have sold the heating stoves they received from UNHCR and now they use smaller heating stoves which they heat very much in order to achieve enough warmth.
Tamara phoned after she had returned from Novi Pazar and said that the camp will stay where it is for now and that the new location for the camp will probably be a piece of land on the old road to Raska (the same road that lead to the old garbage dump in Batnjik), 4 km from Novi Pazar.

As for the project for the children in the settlement, Edip offered free transportation to school for the children (the transportation would take up most of the funds provided for the project) and he will provide a room in the daycare so preschool classes could be held for the children from the camp.

Marija Simovic