About 39 thousand citizens have applied for passports of the Republic of Kosovo since January 3 until now. This number is considered quite large in the Civil Registration Agency, where they say that they are working in extraordinary conditions and where more than 30 days will pass until the citizen is provided with a passport.
In the Civil Registration Agency, they say that the delay of more than a month to be equipped with a passport is happening because the production is not able to keep up with the applications.
The chief executive officer of the Civil Registration Agency (CRA), Blerim Camaj, told KosovaPress that they have raised all the capacities to provide citizens with passports, because they are in an extraordinary state.
Camaj said that citizens should wait 30 days to receive their passports, as they are in an extraordinary situation due to the large flow of applications.
According to him, Serbian citizens are also applying for passports of the Republic of Kosovo.
Otherwise, officials at the Prishtina Airport have announced that from January 1-15, 2024, 103,248 outbound travelers were registered at the “Adem Jashari” International Airport in Prishtina, or 20,531 travelers more than in the first two weeks of 2023.
“We have about 20% more flights and about 15% more passengers than in the same period of last year. There are approximately 112 more flights and about 23,000 more passengers”, said the Airport officials.
However, the leaders of the institutions are trying to deny the exit of the citizens of Kosovo to different countries after the visa liberalization. The Minister of the Interior, Xhelal Sveçla wrote that according to the data from the border points, from January 1 of this year, when our country enjoys the right of free movement without visas until January 19, in the Republic of Kosovo from all border points 3687 buses entered, whereas 2408 buses left all border points.
“To prove that it is not a matter of “mass flight” but with disinformation reports from some irresponsible media, for the same period of time, in the last year, 3511 buses entered whereas 3731 buses left the border points. So, 35% fewer buses left this year after visa liberalization than last year”, he wrote.
