The RRTF facilitates returns through initiatives aimed at providing returnees with housing, security and sustainable socio-economic conditions, such as non-discriminatory access to jobs, education, public utilities and health care and representation in governmental and judicial bodies.

It co-ordinates the reconstruction of housing, and oversees the implementation of property legislation under which all refugees and displaced persons are entitled to repossess their pre-war homes. An inter-agency PLIP cell (Property Law Implementation Plan cell) in Sarajevo co-ordinates and supervises the implementation process and sets the strategic goals, while the country-wide PLIP field network translates this into concrete action at the local level. A Housing Verification & Monitoring Unit (HVM) verifies the status of reconstructed housing and ensures that reconstructed properties are used by the intended beneficiaries.

The RRTF also presses for regional returns between the FRY, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina through the Stability Pact’s Regional Returns Initiative and through initiatives of the BiH Government.

As BiH moves closer towards reaching a self-sustaining return it is predicted that by the end of 2003 the OHR will transfer its return facilitation activities to the domestic institutions. The OHR’s role will be to monitor the returns process, remaining in close contact with domestic and international actors engaged in overseeing return activities. The priority for return is to ensure that the domestic process is fully sustainable; ensuring jobs, education all social benefits, utilities and services and the justice system are equally accessible and efficient for all.

The RRTF comprises the OHR, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the European Commission, the European Commission's Humanitarian Office (ECHO), the governments of Germany, the United States and the Netherlands, the World Bank, the European Union Police Mission (EUPM), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the International Management Group (IMG), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees (CRPC) and SFOR.