Kosovo NGOs Protest Perceived Visa Snub

Several Kosovo civil society organisations have sent a letter to the EU calling for a review of the “impalpable and discriminatory”decision to exclude Kosovo from the current visa-liberalisation process. 

Of the five regional states involved in the visa-liberalisation process, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro have been approved for visa-free travel within the EU, as of January 2010. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania have been told that they might receive EU visa-free status later.

Kosovo, on the other hand, has not been included in the process, as five of the 27 members of the EU have not recognised Kosovo’s independence.   

In the letter to the EU, the NGOs state that Kosovo`s exclusion from the visa-liberalisation process threatens to transform Kosovo "into a ghetto without any way out”.

The head of the Club for Foreign Policy and co-signatory of the letter, Veton Surroi said that  Kosovo's citizens would be further isolated by the EU’s decision, hindering the integration of the country.

“Today, one of the [factors] which impinge on the dignity of Kosovo’s citizens [...] is the issue of visas. Go to any embassy in Kosovo or in Skopje today and you will see how degrading the approach towards Kosovo’s citizens has become. And today we are worse off than we were 15-20 years ago”, Surroi said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Surroi also accused the government for not doing their part in ensuring Kosovo would participate in the visa-liberalisation process, given that one of the prerequisites is the issuing of biometric passports, which the government did not do.

Rada Trajkovic, a Kosovo Serb politician, also signed the letter. She said that Kosovo’s exclusion from the process causes division, and can be viewed as offensive by the Kosovo population, particularly Serbs.

“The European Commission’s proposition devalues our efforts to develop an open and multiethnic Kosovo,” she said.

(Reported by Shega A’Mula)