Household appliances worth €25,000 were distributed on Thursday to the victims of last December's earthquake in the Banovina region, which was organised by the Serb National Council (SNV) and Serbia's Commissariat for Refugees and Migration.

The donation was distributed to 115 families.

Sisak-Moslavina County deputy head Mirjana Olujic, who represents the local ethnic Serb community, said these people had a hard life even before the quake, without roads, electricity, water and sewerage. “Resolving these problems is our priority, and both the county and the SNV are trying to provide every person with the basic living conditions.”

Olujic said there was still a lack of housing containers for people whose homes were destroyed, but added that containers could not be a permanent accommodation.

She said people expected a lot from reconstruction and were frustrated by “the inertia of some services.”

Dejan Milosavljevic, an advisor at the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, said this was its second donation to the earthquake victims this year.

In the past 11 years, the Commissariat has made donations worth €1 million to 5,000 returnees across Croatia, he added.

Milosavljevic said the donations would continue in the years ahead and that they would try to “make the budget bigger.”

He added that in cooperation with the SNV, the Commissariat assisted 100 returning families with the transport of their property.