Serbia to Ease Travel for Foreigners Coming From Kosovo

Serbia is to lift restrictions on foreign passport-holders travelling from Kosovo to Serbia, the Serbian Interior Minister has told BIRN Kosovo.

Until now, foreigners living in Kosovo have been barred from entering Serbia if they do not possess a valid Serbian entry stamp.

These can only be obtained at “official” international border points, not on crossings between Serbia and Kosovo or between Kosovo and the other neighbouring countries.

Ivica Dacic told BIRN’s Life in Kosovo TV show that the situation was about to change.

“We will solve these practical problems, which will mean everyone can cross over without a problem,” the Interior Minister said.

“There will be stamps annulling all Kosovo visas or stamps from the so-called Republic of Kosovo.”

Dacic, who comes from Prizren, refused to provide a date for the lifting of the restrictions but said the ministry was discussing how to avoid foreigners “paying unnecessary costs”.

In the same interview, the Interior Minister ruled out extending the same privilege to travellers holding Kosovo passports. “All those who want to go to Serbia have Serbian documents,” he said.

“Dozens of Albanians are seeking Serbian passports,” he added.

Serbia considers Kosovo an integral part of its territory, albeit temporarily administered by the UN under UN Resolution 1244. As such, although it does not control Kosovo’s land and air borders, it considers those entering the country through these ports ‘illegally present’ in Serbia.

This has meant that travellers flying into Pristina, or entering Kosovo by land from Macedonia, Albania or Montenegro, have had to exit Kosovo through one of these countries before crossing into Serbia.

Foreign nationals with Kosovo stamps in their passport have also been turned back at Serbian border crossings, according to the British foreign office. A recent case saw more than a dozen lorries carrying aid from Britain blocked on the
Kosovo-Serbia border for hours because some members of the convoy, trying to return to the UK, had flown into Pristina.

From January 1, Serbia expects to join the European Union’s so-called white Schengen list, which will mean Serbian citizens can travel to and through most of the EU without a visa. The EU has not extended the right to residents of Kosovo, whether or not they are Serbs.

Dacic said this had not been “a good decision but is a unilateral decision by the EC [European Commission], which means that people in Kosovo in a way are not included in the visa liberalization and will [still] need Schengen visas”.

He said Kosovo’s majority Albanian population was to blame for Kosovo’s exclusion from the European scheme. Kosovo had been shut out “primarily because of the Albanian population’s crime links in Western Europe,” he said.

The minister said that “in a way” the decision was justified because “the removal of visas would open the door for the spread of that crime”.

Dacic insisted that the European Commission’s decision showed it had “accepted the sovereignty of Serbia over the territory of Kosovo and Metohija”.

Turning to the upcoming local elections in Kosovo, in which Serbia has urged members of the Serbian minority in Kosovo not to vote, Dacic said he would not seek to punish those who do decide to cast their ballot.

“The stance of the Serbian government is that we cannot invite Serbs to take part in these elections because by this we would indirectly accept the Kosovo and Metohija institutions”, he said. However, Dacic said it was “up to them [the Kosovo Serbs] to decide what their practical interest is”.

Referring to Kosovo’s unilateral decision to separate from Serbia, the minister asked why, if the same logic was applied consistently, “Serbs in those areas where they are a majority should not also have the right to a unilateral separation from Kosovo?”