The Association of Serbs from Croatia, which works to protect the interest of Serb refugees, has called upon the EU, Serbia, and Republika Srpska to pressure Croatia to change its new law on permanent residence. Under the new law, refugees who have left Croatia would no longer be allowed to register their old Croatian addresses as permanent residences, and would likely be stripped of any rights to return to their old homes.
The Croatian Law on Permanent Residence went into force on December 29, 2012. It stipulates the erasure of permanent residence from records for all Croatian citizens who have a Croatian ID card if by December 29 this year they fail to report to police in the area of their permanent place of residence or to Croatian consulates.
The Association also urged Croatian Serbs not to go to Croatian consulates to register their addresses, as the law directs. “It would be better for those who expelled us, and who for that purpose brought this discriminatory law, to erase us themselves,” said the head of the Association, which views the law as a final act of ethnic cleansing.
