With the cries of "Return the address", the Albanians of the Presheva Valley protested today in front of the police station in Medvegja, for the third time in a few months against the discriminatory actions of Serbia.

More than 60.000 Albanians live in Serbia, making up the fourth largest minority there, according to the latest population census in 2022.

In international reports, the Presheva Valley, a term used for Presheva, Medvegja and Bujanovac, municipalities inhabited by an Albanian majority, is considered completely isolated and is said to receive attention only during elections.

Today's protest was attended by the only Albanian deputy in the Serbian Parliament, Shaip Kamberi, the mayor of Presheva Ardita Sinani and members of the Albanian National Council.

In the protests held, first in Bujanoc, and then in Preševo, a call was made for the recognition of Kosovo's diplomas, for integration in the state institutions of Serbia, for permission to use Albanian national symbols and for solving the issue of passivation of addresses. .

Deactivation means deleting citizens from the addresses where they were registered. This step results in the loss of Serbian citizenship, and thus of all civil rights – including the right to vote, to own property, to have health insurance and a pension, and to be employed.

Address passivization has been defined by law in Serbia since 2011. The law provides for institutions to carry out checks to understand whether a resident lives at the registered address.

If it is proven that a resident does not live at that address, a decision is made to deactivate it, and the resident is obliged to register the new address within eight days, after receiving the decision.

Although the law provides for the right to appeal, citizens have said that, in some cases, they have not even been able to appeal against the decision, since they were not informed in time about the passivation.

In the 2021 report of the Helsinki Committee on Human Rights in Serbia, Presheva, Medvegja and Bujanoci are described as hostages of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. According to the report, the issue of deactivation of addresses "is basically a form of ethnic cleansing through administrative methods".

The inhabitants of the Valley and the leaders of the municipalities have requested several times for the presence of international mechanisms, in order to monitor the living conditions in that part.

They have accused the representatives of the international factor in Belgrade of not reacting to the treatment given to them. The lack of investments and the constant barriers are believed to have influenced the departure of about 20.000 Albanians from this region, mainly towards the state of Kosovo. /REL