The number of asylum seekers, 324 this year alone

The Centre for Asylum in the Lipjan Magure offers all services to these migrants, but the same only views Kosovo as a transit nation.

This center is home to hundreds of people a year, where other health services, food, toilet packages, clothing, and computers are offered.

At the center with a capacity for 100 persons, some 30 migrants have remained in recent days.

The director of the Centre for Asylum in Lipjan Magure, Fitim Zariqi, tells of Kosova Preress about the number of persons who have sought asylum by the beginning of the year.

“From January to now have requested asylum -- a total of 324 applications for international protection of various countries. Prince Morocco, then Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria and other countries, Tunisia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Jordan and Ukraine, etc. If we compare it to last year, or last month, this year, it turns out that there is a slight increase - some 7 or 8 percent - but not seen. Although there is an increase, on the other hand there is also their departure from Kosovo. Like other times even this year, they use Kosovo as a transitor country to move to other EU countries and are seeking better working conditions”, it tells Kosovo Press.

The average day of their stay is three weeks, but Zariqi stresses that there are some of them that stay even longer, while expressing their desire to live in Kosovo.

“Messatar is somewhere 22 days of stay in Kosovo. If we look at the statistics, of these 324 applicants for international protection, over 90 percent are male, or have been male, over 80% of the age of 30, over 98 percent of Islamic faith have been, over 95 percent have entered Kosovo illegally”, he adds.

In a response to KosovoPress, the Information Office in the Kosovo Police tells of the number of people who have attempted to enter illegally this year.

“In the January-June 2022 period in Kosovo are listed 390 persons who entered illegally, compared to the same time period last year and who have been 446 persons, so we have a 12.5%x1>, this answer is said.

The people standing in this center are not everyone looking for asylum. The director of the Magure Center for Asylum states that in some cases, the same is causing problems inside and outside the object.

“The measures are for all citizens of Kosovo, these are not members of the law why they are migrants or why they have sought asylum. Police take all measures and prosecute the case, as for all others who violate the law. It's also internal measures, if they violate the centre's rules, because if they've committed criminal acts or violated the law outside the centre, then police are exclusively taken from” he stresses.

Many of the migrants seeking asylum do not expect a decision on their application. Director Fitim Zariqi claims the asylum procedure is being misused.

“Most of them go from Turkey to Greece, then Greece-Albania to Kosovo, and usually as they point out in other countries they rest several days and go on. Even in Kosovo some form, they enter to transit and move to other countries. There are different statements of their own, different intentions. But their final goal is to transit and move to EU countries. While Kosovo offers all services and conditions and is very good. But their goal is different, not Kosovo. So why do they go into asylum procedure, some form we say the asylum procedure is pretty much being misused, because a person who looks for asylum should stay and not leave arbitraryly. He just disappears and doesn't show up”, he follows.

Migrants can express their will for asylum, at the border belt, at the Department for Migration or police stations.