§ Mr. ElletsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 6 July,Official Report, column 85, why United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cash grants for host families accommodating refugees do not apply to displaced persons or refugees accommodated in Serbia; what access these families have to additional support; what efforts are made to ensure that displaced Bosnians remain with host families in Serbia rather than seeking asylum overseas; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe UNHCR finds it impractical at present to operate a system of cash grants for host families who accommodate displaced people in Serbia. Instead it provides food and other essential humanitarian supplies to displaced people through the Serbian Red Cross and the EC family parcel programme.
UNHCR provided over 35,000 tonnes of humanitarian supplies for displaced people in Serbia in the first six months of 1993. These measures are designed to help to meet the basic humanitarian needs of displaced people so as to enable them to remain in Serbia, as close as possible to their homes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, until such time as they are able to return.