asylum requirements rise after visa liberalisation

Who comes last, let's turn off the lights”...

Comments like this had accompanied the news that Kosovars could travel visa-free through Schengen area countries on January 1st of this year.

Since April of last year, when this news was given, visa liberalisation was seen with concern by nongovernmental organisations in Kosovo, who worried that “the brain's” could deteriorate.

The Institute for Advanced Studies, GAP, reported that nearly 30 percent of Kosovo's citizens planned to emigrate from the country after visa liberalisation.

Although problems in the labour market, the cause of migration, have not increased as much as has been warned by many NGOs, the EU Statistics Office data Eurostat shows there has been an increase in the number of asylum applications in the EU.

From January to July of this year, on average over 550 Kosovars have sought asylum in European countries every month.

This figure is markedly higher than the average in the past six years.

More asylum demand has occurred only in 2015/2016, when tens of thousands of Kosovars have emigrated towards the EU through Hungary's illegal ways.

In the first seven months of this year alone, a total of 3,950 asylum applications have been made more evidently than during the entire year in the four previous years.

The highest number of asylum applications this year was registered in May, when a total of 765 applications were made. Most of them were made in France.

France has been the main destination of Kosovars seeking asylum in the EU since 2018, when it first took Germany's place as its top destination.

Germany has targeted many Kosovars in recent years, due to eased employment procedures. But since procedures allow for a visa through a spell, these are not included in asylum demands.

Since Germany does not allow dual citizenship, except in some cases it remains the main country for which Kosovars give up on Kosovo's citizenship.

But the data released by the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs shows that the number of citizenship release requirements has been on the decline through 2024.

While demands for release from Kosovo's citizenship were on the decline, the number of travelers at Pristina International Airport rose markedly.

With numerous offers from tourist agencies and without the need to apply for visas, many Kosovars seized the possibility of travel to the Schengen area, which consists of 29 European countries.

The number of travellers via air transport to Kosovo has increased year-on-year, but growth trend has begun in the early years.

Various nongovernmental organisations and state institutions, in some cases, have stressed the need for Kosovars to respect visa-free travel conditions.

What are the terms?

Liberalisation allows visa-free travel to up to 90 days within six months of each of the 29 members of the Schengen area.

Visa-free travel should serve for tourist visits, family or similar issues, and neither for work nor other benefits.

On the contrary, the European Union holds the so-called Mechanism of visa suspension. With this mechanism, a non-EU country, like Kosovo, could temporarily be suspended from visa exemptions if it makes misappropriations.

There are four scenarios where the visa suspension mechanism would be activated:

In case of significant growth over 50% of irregular migration.

In the event of considerable growth over 50% of low-level asylum requirements, about 3-4%.

In the event of the decline in co-operation for the repatriation of citizens expelled from the EU, as a result of the irregular stance.

In the event of increased risk for the security of EU member states, especially for serious criminal acts.

So far, the EU has not expressed concern about increasing migration or asylum demands from Kosovo, nor have organisations representing businesses from Kosovo expressed concern that workers are leaving massively.