EU and Kosovo flags close to one another/ Illustration purposes/
On December 31st, Kosovo celebrated not only the arrival of the year 2024 but also the first day that Kosovars would no longer face discrimination in a very crucial aspect. Starting from January 1, i.e., entering the new year 2024, citizens of Kosovo will be able to travel freely, without visas, to the countries of the Schengen area, in total 27 countries. A good part of older citizens in Kosovo confesses that before the last war in Kosovo, they traveled to the countries of former Yugoslavia without obstacles, not sparing stories told with nostalgia about those trips and what they saw during them. However, the young people of Kosovo have been the only young people of the Western Balkans who have not been able to travel and move freely since the independence of Kosovo in 2008 and onwards.
Ardi, a young man from Pristina, when asked by Perspektiva about the news of liberalization, answered with a reflection on time, when one of the divisions he felt between him and the children of the privileged class in Kosovo, that of politicians and children of rich families who had the opportunity to obtain a visa more easily, that is, to move freely.
“I watched with greed all these friends whose parents were ministers and MPs; they went all over those countries. Besides, half of them have the papers of citizenship of Albania and Macedonia without living there for a day. Those who do not have them used their parents’ official duties with the claim of accompanying them. There are also those who had ‘strong fathers’, and they had no problem with the amount of money they had in their bank accounts, so they didn’t have their visas refused. I’m all very curious about the world’s sights; for example, there’s no city in France that I don’t know by name, but I’ve never been there in my life. My relatives live there, but I never went to see them there, even though I applied four times so far,” began his confession, 21-year-old Ardi from Prishtina.
Asked how he expected the news that starting January 1, 2024, citizens of Kosovo would be able to travel without visas, he said that he does not see the liberalization of visas with much enthusiasm, considering such a long deprivation of freedom to travel by citizens of Kosovo from the European Union and other member states with the right to vote.
“Look, everyone is behaving as if this were some kind of blessing or some kind of gift. It’s not like that. We have been deprived of basic rights, such as the right of movement. If our politicians want to sell this as their success and the EU wants to sell this as a gift they are giving us for the new year, it’s fine. But I’m not falling for either. They have isolated us, stigmatized us, and deprived us of our freedom and of our fundamental rights, such as travel and free movement. They have treated us as people who have never been anywhere, and we became so because of them; that is, they have isolated us themselves, and they have stigmatized us as a consequence of their own actions. For us, the EU has always been a stepmother, a bad stepmother, a dark stepmother, added Ardi for Perspektiva Plus.
Ardenis Krasniqi, 20 years old, from Kaçanik, told Perspektiva that he had been refused a visa several times and that each time he felt very bad and that this had caused him losses both financially and in terms of time and commitments.
“Unfair! It is unfair that, as a student who was applying for a tourist visa and met all the criteria, I was denied one. It is a pity that the young people of Kosovo, but also people of other ages, couldn’t visit the countries of Europe,” said Krasniqi.
Although the citizens of Kosovo will be able to move without a visa in the countries of the Schengen area, the same does not apply to a country that is very close to Kosovo, a country that is part of the Western Balkans. We are talking about Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ena Hodzic, 16 years old from Peja, a high school student, told Perspektiva that although she was very happy about the news of visa liberalization, she said that she had wanted to go to Sarajevo and meet her aunt who lives there, as well as other family members of her parents who live there, but that it will hardly be possible as a result of the difficulties and barriers created by the application process itself for equipment with a visa.
“I’m sorry that they didn’t remove the visas; I wanted to go to my aunt, who lives in Sarajevo,” said Ena, who comes from the Bosniak community in Kosovo.
Similar to Ena, many Kosovo residents have family and relatives in Bosnia who they haven’t seen in years due to the visa barrier—in other words, the decisions made by policymakers in official Sarajevo.
The young people of Kosovo, in principle, that is, to a great extent, with some minor exceptions, have never been able to see the Colosseum of Rome, the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy, the Eiffel of Paris, the streets of Spain, or the Greek amphitheaters. They have mostly been able to hear from the movies about the (cold) French hospitality, the prices there, the way of transportation by tram, or the amazing piece of architecture that withstood so many events in Sarajevo. However, the experience of those who were able to obtain a visa was not paved in gold, as they show that they encountered prejudices starting from the official personnel during the control procedures.
Ardenis Krasniqi said that “you feel prejudiced by airport checks because they ask you personal questions like: Where are you going? Why are you going? How long will you stay? How much money do you have with you? That is, they only find reasons to ask you unpleasant questions as soon as they see that your passport is from Kosovo. I don’t believe that they would do the same with such skepticism if I traveled or had a passport from another country, even if it was a neighboring one.”.
A similar experience, or in other words, the feeling of prejudice during her travels, says Serbeze Haxhiaj, the well-known journalist from Kosovo, who has also felt it. Haxhiaj, who is known for her articles for world-renowned media and has won various awards for her reporting on corruption, poverty, war, and reconciliation, told Perspektiva Plus that “in addition to prejudice and mistrust, most of the consular staff in the consulates treat you as a second-hand person. This is seen in airports and almost everywhere. As soon as you show your Kosovo passport, immediately they ask for your fingerprints.”.
Haxhiaj continued by saying that although the vast majority of the visas she received were official, i.e., for work reasons, the challenges were not few.
“I have received hundreds of visas for all these years, and in 99 percent of the cases, they were official, that is, visas to participate in conferences, forums, and workshops. In most cases, they were valid for 3–4 days, as long as the event lasted. There have also been cases where they issued me a 48-hour visa, and when I arrived at the airport of one of the EU countries, they told me not to make the mistake of leaving the terminal because ‘you don’t have a visa anymore’,” said Haxhiu.
The harsh, highly stressful, tiring, and exhausting process of applying, waiting in long lines for a visa response, and then receiving answers that are not always positive has affected many lives in many more spheres than just meeting with family members once or twice per year. This process and mistreatment have deprived many young people in Kosovo of the opportunity to pursue the activities of their dreams in their professional and personal development and growth aspects.
The correspondent of Perspektiva Plus for Kosovo, Vjosa Qerkini, also a journalist at Deutsche Welle, posted a status on Facebook on the morning of November 27, in which she attached a photo showing the street where some of the most important embassies are located, which have been frequented by citizens of Kosovo for more than two decades as they have waited in long queues for answers after applying for a visa. Qerkini wrote as follows:
“Following the desolation of the embassies’ streets. They have deprived us of our souls for twenty-four years. Karma is good, said Qerkini.
Photo posted by journalist Qerkini
The visas were withdrawn. What about now? Although visa liberalization as a decision has already been taken, citizens of Kosovo have the right to free movement in the countries of the Schengen area only for a certain period, so the stay of citizens who travel to these countries cannot last more than 90 days within a period of 180 days.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, Kreshnik Ahmeti, announced that if this rule is broken, significant penalties will follow.
He said that “you can be deported to Kosovo or you can be punished with monetary means up to 5 thousand euros, and if you don’t pay, there is interest. You can also be penalized with a passport for up to 5 years. It appears in each member country that you have violated this rule.”
Also, Ahmeti stated that a series of information must be verified at the control points of the respective states. This information includes proof of the return ticket, proof of the financial capacity to cover the expenses of the person traveling, or, if this does not hold, proof that a family member will cover these expenses.
“A minimum of 3 months of passport validity is required. You need proof of travel—an agenda or tickets. Then the accommodation: with a family member, you must have the information; you can even ask for the identification number of the person who is waiting for you. If you are staying in a hotel, you need to make a reservation. Even in finance, you must prove that you have the financial capacity to cover the expenses if you cover them yourself. If it covers its own expenses, there is no fixed value. If you go to a family for 30–50 euros per day, if you stay in a hotel for 50–100 euros per day, But it differs a little from the places you go and the prices there. A return ticket is also required if traveling by plane; if traveling by car, these are the other documents. It is recommended to have health insurance,” said Deputy Minister Ahmeti.
Those who think to work in these countries must definitely be provided with a work visa, and they must not work “illegally.” However, the general spirit created in Kosovo since the news that we will no longer need visas to travel is that Kosovo will remain empty of young people and that the latter will not return after traveling outside of Kosovo. Although the opinions on this issue are numerous as well as different, where some are skeptical and others really believe that many young people will not continue their lives in Kosovo, this remains to be seen in the following months, specifically after the end of the first half of next year, 2024.
Many irregularities have occurred in the visa application agencies themselves. It was precisely the journalist Vullnet Krasniqi, who, after a few weeks of reporting, managed to understand and even publish that one of the main companies that have operated in Kosovo for years, i.e., “VisaMetric,” even after the decision of the Constitutional Court, continues to charge citizens 30 euros during the visa application process for passport returns. Journalist Krasniqi, who, although young in age, not even in profession, was awarded the “Journalist of the Year 2023” award with this research,.
Journalist Vullnet Krasniqi while reporting on the detected fraud of VisaMetric/ Images: Nacionale
The embassies of the countries in the Schengen area located in Kosovo, as well as the private agencies that accompanied these applications, will not have the commitment they had before 2024. But the citizens of Kosovo will not forget their experience and the fever they felt during the process. that they had to go through as the only citizens of a region—this discriminatory, abusive, undignified, and exclusionary process.
Written by: Hanmie Lohaj
