Buses leaving Pristina each night are packed.| Photo by Una Hajdari

The number of Kosovo Albanians trying to illegally enter the European Union is on the rise, with the Hungarian Police reporting that 880 people from Kosovo were arrested on Sunday and a total of around 4,400 in the period from Friday to Sunday.

The numbers represent the biggest exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo since the conflict in the late 1990s, with Hungarian embassy in Pristina saying that the total number of Kosovo Albanian in the EU country could be higher than 60,000.

The illegal migrants, most whom say they are leaving because of the lack of opportunities in Kosovo, can easily enter Serbia because of an agreement between the countries on travel with ID cards.

They then try to cross the border with Hungary at night, usually with the assistance of smugglers, travelling illegally because they still need visas for the EU.

“I left five months ago. I crossed the border illegally and then went to Budapest. From Budapest I took the train to Austria,” a 24-year-old migrant who spoke to Balkan Insight on condition of anonymity.

He said he then stayed at a camp for asylum seekers in Austria but was subsequently deported. “I was in Traiskirchen for a little over a month, which is when they sent me back to Kosovo by plane,” he said.

After staying in Kosovo for a couple of months, he decided to try his luck again a week ago. He and two other friends successfully crossed the border with Hungary, reaching the town of Gyor, from where he spoke to Balkan Insight.

Kosovo president Atifete Jahjaga kicked off an awareness-raising campaign about the EU asylum-seeking issue on Friday, visiting the towns of Vushtrri and Ferizaj, which have been hit hard by the phenomenon. In Vushtrri, a local school has reported that it has lost 440 students to migration.

Jahjaga insisted that “departure is not the solution” and urged people to stay and work on improving the situation in the country.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs told Balkan Insight in a statement that “measures are being taken to stop the illegal migration” through awareness campaigns and the targeting of “the criminal groups that deal with the trafficking of migrants”.

It said that Kosovo Police were working with EU countries and EU rule of law institutions in a bid to stem the exodus.

Kosovo lawmakers also passed a bill last week aimed at dealing with the outflow of migrants towards the EU.

The bill calls on the government to show greater commitment to economic development, with particular emphasis on creating new jobs to prevent people leaving for European countries. It also envisages the creation of a “fund for the prevention of illegal emigration”.

Parliament further pledged to work on and meet conditions for visa liberalisation with the EU to minimise the number of people trying to get to western Europe illegally.