Kosovo - Albania visa liberalisation

balkan insight

More Kosovars Seeking Albanian Citizenship - report

15 Nov 2010 / 12:07
The number of Kosovo Albanians applying for Albanian citizenship has increased since the EU lifted visa requirements for Albanian citizens last week, Pristina-based media report.

Tanjug, B92
In the wake of the reports, Albanian Ambassador to Kosovo Islam Lauka said that his country’s law allows foreigners to apply for Albanian citizenship but several criteria must be met before citizenship can be granted.

“There are at least eight documents, i.e. criteria that need to be met. It is very important to provide a document which proves that a person has been living in Albania for five consecutive years and for citizens of Kosovo that period is three years,” the ambassador explained in an interview for Albania's top-channel TV.

“There are mitigating circumstances in those three years, if a person from Kosovo has been married to an Albanian citizen for at least a year, for which they need to have a document from the Albanian Interior Ministry,” Lauka added.

After Albania and Bosnia achieved visa-free travel to most European Union member states on November 8, Kosovo is now the only country in the region that has not been granted visa liberalisation for travel to the EU, a situation that some observers say risks isolating the population there.

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http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovars-seeking-albanian-citizenship-report

Albania Travel Agencies Warned Over Asylum-Seekers
Tour operators told not to tempt people to go West on false promises, following the EU decision to lift the requirement for short-term Schengen visas from Albanians.

Besar Likmeta Tirana
Albania's Interior Minister, Lulzim Basha, told travel agents that the government expected them to act responsibly with the public, following the relaxation of the visa rules with the European Union.
"We consider you, and you should consider us, as partners in the initial phase of informing the public about the rules on freedom of movement," Basha told tour operators on Wednesday.

Albanians had "dreamed for a long time" about obtaining the right to free travel within Europe, he said, “and we are prepared to defend it [that right] at any cost".
The minister that said "strict monitoring of the process" was required in order "to avert what happened in Macedonia and Serbia".

Travel agencies in Macedonia and South Serbia are suspected of having lured people to travel to Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland on false promises of easy asylum.

Thousands of poor citizens from the two Balkan countries, mostly ethnic Albanians and Roma, duly headed off on buses into the European Union and sought asylum there.

Sweden's National Migration Board registered 5,300 asylum applications from Serbia alone in 2010, officials told Balkan Insight.

In the wake of the rising number of asylum-seekers, the Council of EU Interior Ministers has tasked the European Commission with publishing reports on the success of the visa liberalisation scheme every six months.

If the influx continues, the Commission may propose suspending the visa liberalisation regime in accordance with the terms of the Lisbon treaty.

Stricter rules will be applied for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, whose citizens will be able to travel inside the EU without visas from December 15.

Basha said the police would provide phone numbers on which people could find out more information concerning the visa regime.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-warns-travel-agencies-over-asylum-seekers

Kosovo Ready for Visa-Free Regime, Pristina Officials Say

29 Nov 2010 / 12:22
Kosovo’s government stresses that it has fulfilled the criteria set by the European Commission on visa liberalisation, as it gears up for an expected EC mission in December.Petrit Collaku Pristina
“There is a team from the EC coming to Kosovo next month and I am quite sure we will get the [visa liberalisation] strategy this year because all the criteria have been fulfilled,” Islam Caka, head of migration department within the Interior Ministry, told Balkan Insight.Kosovo is the only state in the region which has not been granted a visa-free regime with the EU.

The European Commission said on November 9 in its yearly progress report that it is not ready to start negotiations with Kosovo over visa liberalisation because Pristina has not completed a reintegration package for its returnees, but Kosovo government officials argue that the requirements have been met.

Ulrike Lunacek, an Austrian Green MEP and European Parliament Rapporteur for Kosovo, said that Kosovo should expect the EC to send a team before long and convince the EU member states that Pristina has done its homework.

“Not necessarily the ones that do not recognise Kosovo’s independence but others who have new governments to convince and reassure them that Kosovo’s government has done what has been asked,” Lunacek said in Pristina last week after meeting with Besim Beqaj, Kosovo's Minister for European Integration.

Caka outlined the steps that have been taken by Kosovo's government to take back and re-integrate returnees, noting that Pristina has reached six bilateral agreements with EU countries on repatriation.“Most of the agreements have been reached with countries where the majority of Kosovars living abroad are located,” Caka said.

He added that two meetings were held with the Czech Republic in November and the paperwork to finalise the agreement is expected to be finished shortly.“Also, very soon we will have agreements with the Benelux countries,” Caka said.

Caka explained that the office has established two offices at the airport to meet and host the repatriated Kosovars.

“We are building a shelter at the airport which will be opened soon and host repatriated families for a short time,” he added.Caka added:

“In meantime, Kosovo is continuing to repatriate its people from EU countries and the number so far has reached more then 4,300.”“By the end of the year, that figure will stand at some 4,700,” said Caka, adding that the number of returnees will be more or less the same as last year.
According to Caka, European countries sent back more than 4,800 persons in 2009 after turning down their asylum requests.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovo-government-criteria-s-for-visa-liberalisation-are-met

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