AFP views Kosovo as European Union's visa cafaz

Kosovo citizens spend more and more time, money and documents to secure a visa for the European Union, a process that does not already undergo any of their Balkan neighbours.

Even though you know you have all the papers right and someone has invited you to play somewhere, when you sit there and expect you feel like a criminal, Wizar Kuci, violinist, said.

For years, Kosovars have been maintaining hope that the EU will soon lift visas for the Schengen area. But that day seems never to come.

You wait there in line, they call your name and they tell you; wait there, come here, get over here, and then ask the weirdest questions about why you're not married, think about getting married there... that makes you feel offended”, said Aulone Mehmeti, education expert.

They want to humiliate you. They want you to be discouraged and stop applying. Their intentions are to get in the way, one after the other. This is what we call fascism tamed”, says Neziraj, screenwriter.

In 2017, out of some 800,000 travel visa applications to the Schengen area, nearly 18 thousand were refused. Applications, successful or not, cost nearly 100 euros, or a third of the average monthly salary in Kosovo.

If someone is 18 and wants to travel for the first time, he goes to Istanbul. Why are you doing this? Why drive your citizens away, your people. 2 million Kosovars are geographically in the middle of Europe. This is strange”, Ramush Haradinaj, prime minister, said.

Last September, the European Parliament cautioned the removal of the visa regime, saying Pristina has met all conditions. But, the bloc's member states, which must lift restrictions one by one, appear not to be in a hurry. In December, EU top diplomat Federika Mogerini received about 20 thousand messages from angry Kosovars on her Facebook wall, tch broadcasts.

“We have been isolated for years”, a commentator wrote. “