10.03.2014.

Cooperation between the Ministry of Defence and the International Organization for Migration

Nebojsa Rodic, Minister of Defence in the caretaker government held talks today with Gianluca Rocco, Regional Coordinator of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about the prospects of future cooperation with this organization.

At the meeting they expressed the need to provide assistance to peacetime and war veterans, disabled veterans, as well as support to families and children of the fallen professional soldiers through programmes of socio-economic support and family care, as well as their employment at the microeconomic level by starting businesses. They expressed mutual interest in launching a regional project for taking care of veterans of the former Yugoslavia.

Minister Rodic suggested that consideration should be given to funding projects of social adaptation and economic integration of professional soldiers above 40, after the expiry of the agreed term at the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces.

International Organization for Migration in Serbia was founded in 1992, as part of an interagency network of the United Nations for the assistance to displaced persons as a result of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. From July 2006 to June 2011, the International Organization for Migration implemented a project in Serbia to help military personnel and persons who left the defence system (so called "NTF Project" of the NATO Partnership for Peace Project).

The project was designed as a technical and financial support to the already existing Programme for the career change of the members of the Ministry of Defence (PRISMA), and it was funded by 18 countries. During the five-year implementation of the NTF Project, about 9.4 million euros was invested, and in the regional offices of the Directorate (offices in Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad and Kraljevo) more than 7,500 potential users of the project were registered, while the direct support was provided through 4,580 individual projects.