The implementation of the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Vehicles has worried Albanians from the Presevo Valley.

A large number of citizens from Presevo, Medveja, and Bujanovac live and work temporarily in Kosovo and fear that these measures could lead to increased discrimination against them.

Citizens from the Valley and political representatives there are calling on the government not to apply these laws to them. They are also demanding equal treatment and ease of movement and residence.

Fatlind Azizi is a young man from Presevo who has been living and working in Prishtina for almost a decade.

He has applied six times for the renewal of a temporary residence permit but still has not received this permanent document.

“I have had a residence permit for six years and still do not have citizenship, and the procedures are extremely bureaucratic and prolonged. I am directly affected [by the Law on Vehicles] because of free travel. Now I can travel uninterrupted as a person, but my car, which has Presevo plates, is older and cannot be registered in Kosovo. If I register it, I need a Kosovo driver’s license. If I get the Kosovo license, my Serbian license is automatically revoked. This then opens a procedure or file for deactivating my address in Serbia. When my address is potentially deactivated in Serbia, I cannot later apply for a Kosovo residence permit, leaving me either stateless—neither Kosovo nor Serbia. So I remain a citizen of the world,” he said.

From March 15, the implementation of the two laws, the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Vehicles, has begun. Those without Kosovo documents will need to obtain a residence permit, while foreign-registered vehicles cannot circulate in Kosovo for more than three months, unless authorized.

Fatlind, who is also a representative of the organization “Mozaik,” says that since January they have approached the government and representatives from the Presevo Valley to warn them about the problems that could arise from implementing these laws.

KosovaPress learned that the chairman of the National Council of Albanians, Enkel Rexhepi, has requested a meeting with institution representatives to discuss these issues. This meeting is expected to be held soon in Prishtina.

The mayor of Bujanovac, Arbër Pajaziti, told KosovaPress that if these measures are applied to citizens from the Valley, address deactivations will increase.

“There are many citizens who are worried because they do not have accurate information. Even we have some doubts, and we may not want to believe that this law will actually be applied to citizens of the Presevo Valley, because it is known that a large number of citizens live and work temporarily in Kosovo, and they will have many problems moving around. If they are forced to travel within Kosovo with Republic of Kosovo plates, then when they go to their families here in the Valley, it is enough of a pretext for the Serbian state and police here to start the verification and deactivation of addresses. So, if this law is applied to citizens of the Valley, it will cause many major problems,” he said.

Discrimination against these residents would deepen further, especially during travel, Pajaziti added.

“On the other hand, we also have a number of citizens who live in Kosovo, have Serbian documentation, are involved in various activities and businesses in the Valley, and travel every day. They will also face many other problems. Therefore, in this case, we are asking the government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not to apply this law to citizens of the Presevo Valley, just as a decision was made not to apply it to Serb citizens for a set period of three months or one year,” he emphasized.

​KosovaPress asked the Government of Kosovo about this, but by the time of publication, they had not responded.

Azizi expressed disappointment with Kosovo institutions, as he believes that Albanians from the three majority-Albanian municipalities are being treated the same as foreigners.

“You live here, you are an integral part of society, actively participate in socio-economic and political life, and in the end, you are still counted as a foreigner. So we are treated equally with a citizen from Kazakhstan, Turkey, or Serbia. We are not treated specially or given any exemptions. We are treated simply as citizens of third countries,” he concluded.

On Saturday (March 14) in Prishtina, Prime Minister Albin Kurti met with the EU Special Representative in the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue, Peter Sorensen, and the EU Ambassador to Kosovo, Aivo Orav.

In a media statement, it was announced that this law will be implemented, for which Kurti said it will be applied with concessions for Serbs, including the use of IDs issued by Serbia’s illegal structures.

“The implementation of this law will also affect a significant number of citizens who come to or stay in Kosovo from Presevo, Medveja, Bujanovac, Vranje, and other cities in Serbia. Some of them are engaged in providing health and educational services in the illegal parallel system financed by Serbia. I want to emphasize that it is not the interest of the Republic of Kosovo that the implementation of the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Vehicles creates obstacles in providing basic services to citizens,” Kurti said on Saturday.