With an uncertain perspective towards the EU, being the only country in the region without visa liberalization, Kosovo and its citizens continue to face the isolation that, apart from the internal socio-economic situation, has also contributed to mass irregular migration of Kosovars in recent months.
The Kosovo Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED) and Syri i Vizioni (SiV) have published the report “Kosovo towards the EU, the Challenge of Irregular Migration”. This report is part of the series of publications within the project “Meeting EU requirements for good governance, for the further European integration of Kosovo”, a project supported and financed by the European Commission, Liaison Office in Pristina.
According to the author of this report, Ms. Ariana Qosaj-Mustafa, various push and pull factors have contributed to the massive migration flows, these factors have been related to the level of isolation that the citizens of Kosovo are facing. Citizens of Kosovo continue to suffer from systemic problems, exacerbated by the bribery of senior officials, which limit employment opportunities and threaten a stable business environment due to widespread nepotism and corruption.
In the midst of systemic corruption, Kosovo is at risk of social unrest due to the economic situation, worsened by the institutional deadlock of six months in 2014. This timed social bomb remains problematic for the newly elected government. The expected massive returns from a number of EU countries will only worsen the situation further. Therefore, the Government of Kosovo should properly prepare for the return of migrants, having their return as a priority. The extension in the finalization of the third report on the Overview of the Implementation of the Roadmap for Visa Liberalization by the government should be accelerated so that the decision of the EU on liberalization or non-liberalization is known.
The government decided to react with old priorities and weak budget strategies. To date, there is no official data compiled by the government on the number of those who have migrated from Kosovo, relying on outdated documents, such as the Migration Profile for 2013, which was recently approved.
The numbers provided by EUROSTAT are worrying, and show that from November 2014 to March 2015, 57,945 citizens fled Kosovo and sought asylum in EU member states. The numbers of citizens who are illegally staying in the EU remain unknown.
Although Kosovo’s institutions were warned by the EU to develop appropriate ways of response, the government continued with old habits, failing to understand the situation that was developing on the ground. For example, the budget available for readmission for 2015 allocated by the government remains the same as the old one, with around €2 million. The package for readmission and the qualification for financial assistance continue to be the old ones, accepting only migrants who left Kosovo until July 2010.
The recent decisions of some European countries, such as Germany, France and Austria, to consider Kosovo as an unsafe country, due to the situation in Kosovo, have also been attractive factors for irregular migration. This opportunity was not missed by Kosovar and Serbian smugglers, which led to the increase in irregular migration of Kosovars in recent months. These factors were exploited by smugglers to misinform the citizens and increase their migration flow to the EU countries. The media, including social media, were used to spread information that did not match the facts, allegedly that some of the EU member states were granting asylum to Kosovars.
Other institutions’ responses lacked appropriate proactive approaches and strategic guidance, remaining largely reactive rather than proactive. Investigations into smuggling were also hampered by a lack of regional cooperation, especially with Serbia. Serbia passively allowed smugglers to operate for months. The Kosovo Police only recently arrested a small number of smugglers, thus identifying only 65 citizens as victims until March 20, 2015. (N.B. These figures are up to March 15, 2015).
The judicial response data for 2014 is not promising to expect any proper response to the recent police arrests. From the small number of cases that Kosovo prosecutors have pursued in 2014, the judges declared only 15 people guilty, and one was declared innocent. In 2014, Kosovo prosecutors had 63 percent of smuggling cases that remained unsolved. However, the courts of Kosovo, including the prosecutor’s offices, must react as quickly as possible to new cases of irregular migration, to investigate and file charges, so as to show a clear readiness to fight this phenomenon.
Results in the fight against corruption can influence the minimization of the driving factors of irregular migration. By reducing systemic corruption, nepotism, and providing a stable environment for businesses, the government of Kosovo will give signs of breaking away from the old ways of governance, and will begin to build a stable state for its citizens.
In the end, KIPRED proposes the following recommendations for the overall improvement of the fulfillment of EU requirements in the fight against irregular migration:
- The government decided to react with old priorities and weak budget strategies. To date, there is no official data compiled by the government on the number of those who have migrated from Kosovo, relying on outdated documents, such as the Migration Profile for 2013, which was recently approved.
- The government should adopt a refreshed and expanded Migration Profile and provide its own official statistics on the number of people who have migrated in recent months