{"id":29215,"date":"2022-01-12T08:50:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T07:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=29215"},"modified":"2022-01-12T09:12:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T08:12:53","slug":"12000-presevo-valley-albanians-still-without-kosovar-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/12000-presevo-valley-albanians-still-without-kosovar-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"12,000 Presevo Valley Albanians still without Kosovar citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around 12,000 Albanians from the Presevo Valley who have been living in Kosovo since 1999 have not obtained citizenship to this day. This was a strong declaration made by Kushtrim Ajvazi on \u2018Good Morning\u2019, a representative of the Civic Movement Vatra\u2018.\u2019<\/p>\n

He also emphasized that even the children of these families, who were born and raised in Kosovo, have not received their citizenship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision is long overdue but better late than never. Now we are waiting to see what\u2019s going to happen with the new law. The government of Kosovo has not enrolled them as refugees and has no data on how many belong to that category. They ask for a 5-year proof of residence in Kosovo, but the majority cannot prove that so they will encounter difficulties\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Ajvazi noted that the main objective is to provide them with proper documents in Kosovo and return to their country of origin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people have been living in black and have no rights\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

The government of Kosovo approved a concept paper on citizenship that aims to resolve the challenges faced by these citizens.<\/p>\n

The document includes a proposal from the president\u2019s office to provide Albanians from Medvegja, Preshevo, and Bujanoc with a Kosovo passport.<\/p>\n

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