More than 3,500 people gave up Kosovo's citizenship this year

Internal Affairs Ministry officials report to Radio Free Europe that only during the January-August period of this year, 3519 people have been released from citizenship, respectively, the citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo.

Rrexana Chari, director of the office for public communication in the ministry, tells Radio Free Europe that the number of people seeking release from Kosovo's substate is marking year-on-year.

The reason for the citizenship release, according to her, is most often about that many European states do not allow for dual citizenship for citizens who are not part of the European Union, including Kosovo.

“over the January-August 2019 period, out of the citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo, 3519 persons have been released in all. The reasons why people give up their citizenship in the Republic of Kosovo is because many European Union states do not allow duality, including some states that are not part of the European Union. Given that a large number of our citizens have been living for years in these countries, and a large number have also been born in these countries, and as a result, they have acquired the right to obtain citizenship and are obliged to be freed from previous citizenship, in case they want to gain the citizenship of that country”, Clar says.

According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from 2009 to 2018 over 400,000 citizens of the Republic of Kosovo have renounced Kosovo's citizenship. On average a year, more than 5,000 citizens have been released from Kosovo's substate.

Based on a Kosovo Statistics Agency report, there are up to 800 thousand Kosovo citizens living in different parts of the world, but in diaspora registration, the process launched by Kosovo authorities years ago, so far only about 400,000 citizens have been registered.

The largest number live in the state of Germany, followed by Switzerland and others.

Fjolla Vukshinaj from the nongovernmental organisation "Germin," which deals with the diaspora body, tells Radio Free Europe that the increasing number of citizens leaving Kosovo's citizenship is disturbing.

Releasing Kosovo's citizenship, Vukshinaj adds, citizens living outside Kosovo do it because they are obliged, considering that some states in the European Union do not allow dual citizenship, such as the case with Germany.

However, it says that despite these Kosovo citizens giving up their citizenship, Kosovo through the diaspora Law must create the possibility of their integration into social life in Kosovo.

“That's because our diaspora is not typical, like the diaspora of many countries in the world, because despite giving up their citizenship, they still remain connected to the mother country (to Kosovo) and continue to contribute to different forms of”, she says.

Kosovo's economy over the years has been dependent on money, which is sent by Kosovo citizens living abroad. The remittances accepted in Kosovo, according to Kosovo Central Bank data, also present the largest category under the secondary income account.

In 2018 alone, the value of remittances amounts to 800m euros.