Prishtinë, 11 March 2022 – The Ombudsperson Mr. Qelaj, invited by Albanian National Council visited Bujanoc/Bujanovac and Presheva/Presevo municipalities on Thursday in order to be acquainted with the situation of Albanian population in these municipalities as well as simultaneously to be informed on the level of their rights and freedoms respected.

Mr. Qelaj initially was admitted by Mr. Ragmi Mustafi, Chairman of the Albanian National Council who spoke on Council’s organization and functioning as well as emphasized the issues of concern endured by Albanian community such as: passivity of Albanian addresses, failure of Diploma recognition, low employment of Albanian population in public institutions, restriction of the right to use national symbols and lack of textbooks in the Albanian language.

Mr. Qelaj pointed out that the Ombudsperson Institution has admitted complaints from citizens of Bujanoc/Bujanovac and Presheva/Presevo Valley and has been informed about problems that they face both in Kosovo as well as in this region.

In this regard, the Ombudsperson has issued two Recommendations Reports concerning the inability of obtaining documents and the lack of status for legal residence without effective citizenship. The Ombudsperson has requested from Kosovo authorities to ensure the correct number of unregistered residents without personal documents and to take measures for their registration.

The Ombudsperson also met with the Mayor of Bujanoc/Bujanovac, Mr. Nagip Arifi with whom they discussed about students’ challenges coming from this region as well as their failure to be provided with work permits in Kosovo. The Ombudsperson met also the Speaker of Municipal Assembly, Mr. Enver Ramadani.

Mr. Qelaj was also hosted by the Deputy Mayor of Presheve/Presevo, Mr. Ragmi Mustafa who reiterated the challenges of citizens of this area in Kosovo and the large number of unemployed in this municipality. The Ombudsperson met also Mr. Shaip Kamberi, Albanian Assembly Member of the Serbian Parliament.

In all the meetings that the Ombudsperson conducted, passivity of the addresses was the main concern which impacts on citizens of these municipalities to be deprived of many other right interconnected to this action, further the issue of non-recognition of diplomas which makes young people impossible to have a perspective in this region which has resulted with the increase of the number of young people leaving the country as well as integration issue,  as statistics show that the participation of Albanians employed in public institutions is very low compared to the percentage of the total population in these municipalities.