Ombudsman seeks to regulate Kosovo Albanian status

In Kosovo, the Ombudsman asked authorities Friday to provide with personal documents of Albanians from Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, three Albanian majority municipalities in southern Serbia that have been displaced on Kosovo territory.

A report by the lawyer says that a large number of citizens from Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac have moved to Kosovo, for security reasons, social, economic and other aspects. Part of them, in the absence of personal documents for a long time, are facing the issue of lack of legal position, without effective citizenship and personal identification documents within the territory of the Republic of Kosovo”.

The ombudsman considers this state of concern that adds “difficulties in realising a normal life and enjoying basic rights guaranteed with the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo and international human rights standards”.

Although there is no precise data, the ombudsman's report notes among other things that since 2001, around 3 thousand and 500 ethnic Albanians from Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac have moved to Kosovo and have no legal status resolved.

They cannot obtain documents from Serbia due to a 2011 law allowing Serbian authorities to erase their names from local records.

A number of Albanians from that area had been displaced during and shortly after the conflict between Albanian rebels and Serbian government forces, which ended in May 2001, with the international community's intervention.