KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The overall results of the return of displaced persons to Kosovo-Metohija over the past decade and a half are unsatisfactory, says the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric.

The efforts related to the return of displaced persons to Kosovo-Metohija must be doubled, and ensuring the return of at least some of the more than 247,000 persons to the province is a great responsibility, Djuric told a press conference in Kosovska Mitrovica.

"For that to happen, it is not enough just to appear at a press conference and urge them to return to Kosovo-Metohija - we must also ensure the basic conditions for the returnees, such as security, jobs, education, access to infrastructure and health care, as well as a normal life environment", Djuric said.

"Seventy percent of those who have been expelled from Kosovo-Metohija still have no housing, 60 percent are unemployed, while 70 percent of them live in poor conditions on the verge of poverty or below the poverty level," Djuric said.

"That is something we must deal with if we want to ensure a strategic survival and a return to Kosovo-Metohija," Djuric said.