There is absolutely no alternative to working together, First Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has told the OSCE Mediterranean Conference, Tanjug agency reported.

The current refugee and migrant situation calls for unabated attention, efficiency and, above all, solidarity of all relevant actors, Dacic said as he addressed the gathering in Palermo, Italy.

This means not only providing emergency humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants in the current crisis, but also seeking and finding durable solutions for persons in protracted displacement, he added.

"Our empathy for refugees and migrants and essential understanding of their suffering and predicament stems from the fact that we have been faced with the problem of refugees and IDPs for more than two decades."

According to the UNHCR data, the minister continued, our country is even today home to a total of 250,000 refugees and IDPs living in protracted displacement, the largest number in Europe.

"The reduction in the number of refugees in the territory of the former Yugoslavia was largely the result of their integration in the Republic of Serbia, which bore the largest burden of a durable solution for the refugee problem. Regrettably, out of 200,000 IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija, only 4,000 of them or 1.9 percent have returned to their homes," Dacic said.

See at: http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2017&mm=10&dd=24&nav_id=102632