Kosovo immigration bad sign of visa liberalisation

The rise in the number of citizens interested in emigrating outside Kosovo to European countries and beyond is considered by authorities in Pristina to have its own effect even on the visa liberalisation process.

Recent months have reported that many young people, mainly legally, have released Kosovo and found jobs in some of the European Union countries.

In addition to perceptions of the departure of citizens from Kosovo to European countries, official data for recent months about migration are not available to Kosovo institutions.

Citizens, reportedly leaving Kosovo legally, being equipped with working visas in diplomatic missions of the member states of the European Union accredited in Kosovo, which makes the situation easier compared to periods of illegal evacuations.

However, Kosovo's Assembly during the past week had held an extraordinary session with the point, as is called: the parliamentary “Debat regarding the country's removal of young people, as the biggest risk facing the country from post-war”.

But, according to Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, this session will be reported somewhere and that according to him, it may have an impact on the visa liberalisation process. He said that at the Berlin Summit on April 29th, he expects to seek once again from Germany and EU representatives there to liberalise visas for Kosovo citizens. However, the plenary sessions, such as the one for the departure of citizens, according to him, can have a bearing on the process.

We're April 29th in Berlin. It is a real opportunity to move forward with the issue of visa liberalisation, but I am sorry that the session will definitely be reported somewhere. With the idea of certain points or certain situations, whether political or other, we have to make sure that our purpose is 20 years, for our people to move free. In the European Union now are new elections”, Haradinaj stressed, adding that the Kosovo Parliament has had other forms to freeze the concern of citizens leaving.

The serious economic and social situation, the high unemployment rate, has been highlighted as two of the main problems that are forcing young people to leave the country.

Taulant Kryeziu, from the Kosovo Institute for European Policy (EPIK), tells Radio Free Europe that European Union countries worry could have illegal migration, as legal migration is under control.

The European Union member states' main concern is that Kosovo citizens do not become a burden of taxpayers from EU member states. In each of the EU member states, our citizens working with working visas are all right, because they have a deal with employers and employers. They have designated visas that could be 6 months or 1-year-old and that is regulated and there is no concern in this regard because these countries have control over their circulation legally. But their concern is when a figure of over 100,000 citizens stay illegally in EU member states, as they are the burden person for taxpayers of EU citizens”, Kryeziu points out.

The rule of the law, he adds, is the primary part of the European integration process and that, according to him, if the country's institutions want to convince member states of positive decision making, they should address integration reforms, which, he says, have serious impasses.

According to a report published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Government of Kosovo, it is said that for the period 2013-2017 on average per year, up to 35 thousand Kosovo citizens have emigrated and that the devastating portion of migration had included the new age groups, mostly 25-44.

During 2013 é 2017, from Kosovo, according to these data, which account for the Kosovo Statistics Agency, have emigrated more than 170 thousand citizens. This data has included regular and irregular migration and that a considerable number emigrated seeking asylum.

Taulant Kryeziu says that leaving Kosovo of new ages and highly educated people should be a major concern for the country's institutions.

When meritocracy is lost, in a country where rule of law does not reign, then all other options are open. The greatest concern for this political class is that young people are leaving Kosovo because the number of the largest unemployed is concentrated on this category of persons, even the few working are more short-term contracts and they don't have a security for family planning. All of this allows young people to see any alternative and possible to leave the country”, he says.

Otherwise, the visa liberalisation process between Kosovo and the European Union started in 2012, but has not yet been finalised as the process.

The issue of visa liberalisation for Kosovo has now remained with the ministers of European Union member states.

Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj and European Integration Minister Done Hoxha have warned of the possibility that in the EU, despite this year's elections, there will be positive decisions for Kosovo in June of this year.

While EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn has warned that abolishing visas for Kosovo citizens could likely come in expression, sometime during 2020.