Ethnic Albanians in South Serbia protest against discrimination

Ethnic Albanians in South Serbia protest against discrimination

On Monday, ethnic Albanians in Serbia’s Bujanovac municipality held a protest against discrimination by the Serbian authorities. They demanded more public sector employment opportunities, the provision of Albanian-language books in schools, and voiced their concern about the removal of ethnic Albanians from their registered addresses.

Context

According to Serbia’s 2022 census, there are more than 57,000 Albanians in the  municipalities of Medvedja, Bujanovac, and Presevo, in the south of Serbia, an area known as the Presevo Valley.

Data indicate that approximately 4,000 Albanians in Medvedja and 2,000 in Bujanovac have had their addresses marked as inactive, because they live abroad. This practice potentially renders them stateless due to the lack of identification documents, and unable to vote and access the public healthcare system.

The European Parliament has passed resolutions expressing deep concern over allegations that Serbian authorities are systematically misusing the law to “passivize” the addresses of ethnic Albanians. There are fears that this may be part of an effort to alter the official ethnic composition and, consequently, the political landscape of the southern Presevo Valley. The European Commission has urged Serbian authorities “to better explain to the public how these checks are being conducted.”

The practice targets exclusively ethnic Albanians. Many thousands of Serbs live and work abroad and maintain a permanent address in Serbia, yet there have never been widespread complaints of their addresses being declared inactive.

A problem faced by Albanians in the Presevo Valley is also the non-recognition of university diplomas obtained in Kosovo, despite Kosovo and Serbia having reached an agreement on this in the EU-mediated dialogue. The non-recognition of university diplomas obtained in Kosovo limits the access of ethnic Albanians to public sector employment in the Presevo Valley.


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