In Kosovo in black, Serbia with unvised address

For more than 22 years, he says it has been impossible for him to gain citizenship or equipment with any Kosovo documents.

Sedati doesn't even have Serbia's valid documents, as Serbian authorities there have been unvisiting the address.

I am in Kosovo the person in the black. Neither the Kosovo Police nor the Serbian Police can verify me. Serbia's documents are short-term, meaning those systems don't accept them because of their progress. Kosovo has no document, even though I have been living in Kosovo since June 1999”, he tells Radio Free Europe.

Sedati says he has many times collected documentation, hoping that one day Kosovo institutions will equip him with residence permits or with temporary documentation.

The first request says it was done at the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in 2001, but the request was denied because it had not been able to prove that it lived in Kosovo before the years HINA-99.

“Tri times I was at the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs at the Office for Foreigners, and my request was denied because of the lack of a job contract because I couldn't link work contracts to documentation, as were Serbia's documents. We are required to have health insurance that even Kosovo citizens do not have. We are required to have a job contract with a minimum salary of 500 euros”, says Sedati.

The problems Sedati has faced for more than 22 years are being tried to solve through an initiative of the Government of Kosovo, which on December 29th last year approved the concept of citizenship.

In this concept-document, as Kosovo President Artan Murati's adviser, has indicated, is included in the comment and proposal of the President's Office, which will enable Albanians from Medvedja, the Presevo and Bujanoc to be granted citizenship to the Republic of Kosovo.

Initiative to Enhance Valley Albanians With Citizenship

In the concept of citizenship specifically, citizens of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanocci municipalities in southern Serbia are mentioned as Presevo Valley and the problems they face in their efforts to equip themselves with Kosovo citizenship.

“All citizens from Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanci, who have stayed in the Republic of Kosovo at least five years from 1206.1999 to 31.12.2021, will have the right to gain citizenship based on regulating the legal framework with this concept-document, while in terms of procedure criteria it will be regulated with sub-legal acts”, the concept for citizenship of December 29th 2021.

However, to gain citizenship from every citizen of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc must meet a series of criteria, such as testimony to Kosovo's stay for at least five years, possession of valid residence permit, acceptance of Kosovo's constitutional and judicial order, possession of sufficient financial means to live in Kosovo, meeting financial obligations to the state, and many other criteria.

The Chiseva-born Antigona Shaipi has gone through a long process until it has managed to gain Kosovo's citizenship.

Since childhood she has lived in the town of Gjilan in Kosovo.

The procedure to gain Kosovo citizenship was a very long procedure, which mainly lasts five years on meeting the criteria, but I had completed all education in Kosovo from elementary school to university, the procedure was cut from five to two years”, she says of Radio Free Europe.

Antigona shows that it is initially equipped with one-year residence permits and then equipped with Kosovo citizenship, when it has even issued ID.

But the procedure for her family was longer and more demanding, she says.

The procedure was really long and very expensive, since most documents are known to have a valid deadline of just six months and this procedure was repeated annually”, Antigona shows.

MPB: Easys are being created for citizens of Presevo Valley

In a response to Radio Free Europe, Kosovo's Ministry of Internal Affairs says the new citizenship law will solve many problems, among them the issue of citizens' citizenship equipment from Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, who live in Kosovo.

“For citizens of Presevo municipalities, Medvedja and Bujanoc, who have been displaced in Kosovo since 1999, will be presented with relief measures to gain citizenship rights”, the MPB response reported.

With the work of Kosovo institutions, as far as the citizenship equipment of the Presevo Valley citizens is concerned, there is no satisfaction with the Framework Kadriu of the Vatra Civic Movement.

He says that even past Kosovo governments had started procedures for relief in terms of Kosovo's citizenship equipment of citizens of the Presevo Valley, but that according to him, there has never been any result.

“We fear that this too is an initiative like the past, because those of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo have not consulted at all, nor of those of us who deal with this work, nor of the National Council in Bujanoc, Presevo, nor of the leaders, nor of the organisations there, it means anyone, and no commitment, nor with citizens who have trouble”, Kandriu points out.

Kadriu says that citizens of the Presevo Valley find it difficult to equip themselves with Kosovo's citizenship, since in most cases, citizens of this part living in Kosovo have been cleared of documents from the Serbian government.

This, according to Kadriu, has made it impossible for them to extract any currency documents from Serbia and through which they would be able to apply to equip themselves with Kosovo documents.

Mustaf: In Kosovo we are constantly promised

The head of the Albanian National Council in Serbia, Ragmi Mustaf, tells Radio Free Europe that Kosovo should deal seriously with the fate of Albanians in the Presevo Valley who have remained without citizenship.

He warns Kosovo institutions of the fact that, according to him, in Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc Serbia's state bodies, they have disabled at least 6,000 Albanian addresses on this side, living in Kosovo.

We have demanded that, according to regional practices, Hungarians, Croats and so on, all Albanian citizens of the Presevo Valley of Kosovo documentation equipment. Even in the past there has been a tendency to regulate Kosovo's legal infrastructure in order to address this issue, but the solutions that have been offered have not produced results”, Mustaf says.

Mustafi says that through legal changes any obstacle should be removed in the process of equipping the Presevo Valley Albanians with documents as well as with Kosovo citizenship.

According to nongovernmental organisations and political subjects from Presevo Valley, an estimated 20,000 citizens in Kosovo have migrated to Kosovo for various reasons.

According to the Citizen Vatra Movement, many of them have had it difficult or impossible to equip themselves with Kosovo documents, as they lacked a valid Serbian document, have not had a job in Kosovo, but also because they have not met other criteria defined in the Law for Citizenship.