When Citizen's Life Depends on a Visa

The reason he has sought a visa is linked to his health problems. He suffers from a heart condition for which surgery has been recommended. Such intervention, in the case of Naim, is not conducted in Kosovo, so it is forced to seek medical treatment outside Kosovo.

His 65-year-old father, Jakupi, told Radio Free Europe while waiting with his son before the German Embassy, that they are facing the challenge of waiting long to be equipped with visas.

We've been waiting five months for a visa. We made the request at the German embassy. No answer. There are many irregularities in the embassy. We came in front of the embassy just to see what's going on and there's a lot of people. Such heart surgery cannot be carried out in Kosovo, which boy should do”, Jakupi said.

But people with health problems waiting like Naim have thousands.

The European Union's embassies in Kosovo have their procedures, regardless of the cases associated with medical treatment.

The chairman of the Union Health Federation, Blerim Syla, says receiving a visa for Kosovo citizens remains a challenge, not only for those who want to travel to Europe and beyond, but also for people who struggle with life.

“We at the workplace have had the occasion when the 14-year-old son of a colleague, who has suffered from a malignant illness for which there was no healing within Kosovo, could not go abroad. Although even the hospital in the European country has been paid about 40 thousand euros, visas have been denied in Pristina by the respective embassy”, he stresses.

Try to figure out how far the problem of getting a visa has gone. We're all discriminated against. There have been times when even waiting for visas, patients have died. Where is our political class when their citizens face these very problems”, Syla said.

At the Ministry of Health, Albattri Matosi, the minister's adviser, told Radio Free Europe that patients' troubles are big enough even without bureaucratic procedures to obtain a visa, which has often occurred that although the money has been cleared from the fund dedicated to the treatment programme outside public health institutions, they have been denied visas.

The visa liberalisation would undoubtedly help citizens, but the Ministry of Health. I say so, since even when they pledge means for certain diseases, citizens must undergo very difficult procedures to obtain, which is also costly. I think they have their big problems even without going into these bureaucratic procedures to be equipped with a line of”, Matoshi said.

However, Kosovo's non-involvement under the free, visa-free movement zone is costing many citizens who for various needs want to head towards European Union countries.

The biggest challenge remains for patients who cannot receive health services within Kosovo and are seeking recovery abroad. But their visa equipment remains their own challenge.