The request for asylum in the Schengen area will be rejected – Kosovo and other Western Balkans countries are considered as safe places

On this occasion it was also discussed about 17 repatriated persons from Austria in the Republic of Kosovo in the recent days, and other persons that will be repatriated during upcoming days and weeks. Although Eurostat statistics from the past years have shown a decrease of the number of asylum seekers from Kosovo to the EU-member states, the number of Kosovo citizens that continue to seek asylum is still high, said Minister Çitaku.

Minister continued by saying that an increasing trend has been noticed during the last months after the signature and implementation of agreement on free movement between Republic of Kosovo and Serbia. We have said earlier that we are aware that asylum and illegal migration are consequence of the difficult conditions in which live many citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, but despite difficulties and despite challenges and problems that we have in our new country-the asylum is not an option anymore for our citizens and whoever travels to Europe with an idea that he can benefit from the political, economical or any other form of asylum will be returned to the Republic of Kosovo. We have already signed agreements for readmission with most of the EU-countries and moreover we have unilaterally adopted law on readmission and every citizen of the Republic of Kosovo who is found illegally in the EU countries will be returned back.

Minister also said that “I have also requested from EULEX to join Kosovo Police and Prosecutorial in order to fight criminal networks that are using difficult conditions of our citizens and are offering to them false promises that allegedly they can benefit from asylum. These citizens are victims of these networks that have regional and international character and we are ensuring citizens of Kosovo that we are working hard in the fulfilling of criteria for Visa Liberalisation in order to enable citizens of the Republic of Kosovo to freely travel towards the EU countries, in addition I have to say that Visa Liberalization doesn’t mean permanent staying permission nor labour permission, it is just one more opportunity and facilitation for the citizens who want to travel and see their families and relatives as well as travel for business purposes.

We will do our share of work and we appeal on citizens of the Republic of Kosovo to be confident that we will meet our obligations and at the same time we appeal on the law enforcement agencies to arrest as soon as possible the criminal networks who have already been identified and are in the final stages of investigation.

Minister Çitaku also thanked Ambassador Briger and the Republic of Austria for the given support up to date and for the support is continues to give in the process of European Integration and especially on the Visa Liberalization.  In addition, this joint presentation of ours here is a demonstration of a common commitment in order to see Kosovo as soon as possible being closer to the family of the European Union.

On his part, Austrian Ambassador in Kosovo Mr. Johann Brieger appealed on Kosovo citizens not to fall a prey of the traffickers’ false promises that they will find work. Traffickers that encourage citizens of Kosovo to take this expensive and dangerous route in order to migrate towards Austria are just deceiving citizens and taking from them lot of amounts for this trip which at the same time means that these money is lost. Ambassador continued by saying that Austria considers Kosovo and other countries of the Western Balkans as safe countries and that the asylum seeking request will be rejected.

At the same time he added that the asylum seeking request will be treated in a matter of a week and that decisions will be negative, which means that returning back will be immediate and that refusal for a new trip in a regular way will be valid for 18 month and longer measures of the banning of entry in all Schengen area may be pronounced as well, together with a fine of a value up to 7500 Euro will follow up.