Census in Serbia, Albin Kurti appeals to the Albanians of Presheva: Register!
2022-10-01 20:14:58
TiranaPost
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, through a video message distributed on social networks, calls on all Albanians of the Presheva Valley to register in the census that Serbia is conducting during the month of October. Kurti says that Albanians living in Serbia are constantly faced with national and human discrimination and recently also with the deactivation of their addresses.
"The registration which starts today and ends on October 31 for Albanians is not just a matter of statistics. As Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, I invite the Albanians living in Serbia, and in particular in the municipalities of Preshevo, Medvegja and Bujanovc, to respond to the registrars, registering themselves and their family members. I invite you to respond to the press by registration. Respond to passivation by registering every Albanian, including those who are temporarily residing in the diaspora and Kosovo. Prove decisively that you are there", said Kurti.
The Albanians in the south of Serbia, Preshevo, Medvegja and Bujanoc, boycotted the population census in 2011. According to the estimates of the international community, about 60 thousand Albanians live in Serbia, mainly in the three municipalities in the south, which are also known as the Preshevo Valley.
What is the passivation process?
In 2021, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia said that official Belgrade, in order to reduce the number of Albanians in the Preševo Valley, is carrying out the process of "passivating Albanian residents" living outside Serbia, whether in Kosovo , or in European countries. "This measure, in essence, is a form of ethnic cleansing through administrative means," said the report of the Helsinki Committee.
According to the Helsinki Committee, when a residential address is deactivated and removed from the register in Serbia, that person practically ceases to exist in that country as he cannot be provided with any documents and therefore cannot carry out any administrative procedure.
