Kosovo politicians have been promising to the 1.7 million citizens of Europe’s youngest country for over 6 years now, that “next year they can travel visa-free” throughout the Schengen Area. These promises intensified after the European Commission gave the final nod that Kosovo has met all visa liberalization criteria in July last year.

In August, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) gave the green light for visa liberalization for Kosovo citizens. Later, in September, the European Parliament agreed to open talks on the abolition of visa regime for Kosovo, the last country in the region, which remains isolated.

However, last time visa liberalization for Kosovo citizens was discussed at the EU’s highest bodies was in March this year, when the European Parliament once again confirmed its position on the issue. Now the council of ministers needs to agree to move Kosovo under the list of visa free countries, in order to complete the process.

While many high EU officials and politicians from the Member States have voiced their concerns that visa liberalization is being delayed without a reason and that Kosovars are losing patience, some of the EU members still think Kosovo does not qualify for liberalization, despite of having met the criteria set.

After the 2014 refugee crisis in Europe, during which Kosovars were the main asylum seekers from countries listed as safe, the EU fears that a possible influx of asylum-seekers or illegal migrants from Kosovo may take place again.

Yet, data published by the European Asylum Support Office show that asylum seekers from Kosovo should no longer be a concern for the EU countries. In fact, there are 12 countries that already have a visa free travel agreement with the EU, which even years after the agreements were reached, still file higher numbers of unfounded asylum applications.

According to statistics, the number of applications filed by Kosovars in any of the EU+ countries per month has decreased for almost 50% within two years, comparing June 2017 to June 2019.

A total of 1,940 asylum applications were filed by Kosovo nationals from January through June this year, while 28.4% of them were repeated applications. While the numbers may be high compared to other countries, they are still slightly lower than the number of asylum seekers in EU+ coming from 12 visa-free countries, three of the neighbors of Kosovo.

Albania, North Macedonia, & Serbia

In recent years, the Western Balkans has proved to be a source of illegal migrants and asylum seekers in the EU+ countries. Unemployment, a lack of job security, long working hours and low remuneration are the main factors that have pushed people out of the Balkans for years, in a bid to find a better life.

EASO statistics prove that, while Kosovo is the sole country in the region the nationals of which need a visa to the Schengen Area, in fact, the nationals of three out four of Kosovo’s neighbors file many more asylum requests.

Only in April this year, the nationals of Albania filed as many applications as Kosovars did in six months. In total, 11,917 asylum applications were lodged by Albanian passport holders. What makes Albania the main source of asylum seekers from WB, with about 514% more applications than Kosovo.

Kosovo’s northern neighbor, Serbia, which still considers Kosovo to be a part of it, even 11 years after the latter declared independence, went through an increase in number of asylum seekers to the EU+ in the first two months of the year, what from 847 in January, dropped again to under 400 in June. Serbs filed 3,336 asylum applications in the six first months of the year, or 72% more than Kosovo.

Nationals of North Macedonia lodged about 17.7% more applications than Kosovo, with a total of 2,285 requests filed in half a year. A drop in applications from NM was also noticed from January through June, with 628 in the first month, and 192 in the sixth.

During the presentation of the last report of the EU Commission on fulfillment of visa-free requirements by Western Balkan, the Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos called on these countries to continue curbing irregular migration.

“Visa free travel with our Western Balkan and Eastern European partners is a great achievement which brings benefits for both sides. It also comes with responsibilities and obligations. I welcome that all concerned countries continue to fulfil their obligations, but call for swift and enhanced efforts to continue curbing irregular migration, and fighting corruption and organized crime,” he said at the time.

The report also concluded that irregular migration from Serbia to the EU remains high, and called on Albania to continue its effort with the measures to address irregular migration, which resulted in a 32% decrease in asylum applications in the first half of 2018.

Georgia & Ukraine

Georgia is the third biggest source of asylum seekers in the EU+ with 12,527 applications lodged in the first half of the year. The country had started the visa liberalization dialogue in 2012, just a few months after Kosovo. The decision to transfer Georgia to the list of third countries whose nationals are exempt from visa requirement came into effect on 28 March 2017, and since then, the number of asylum seekers has continuously been going up and down.

On the other hand, a total 4,995 were filed by the nationals of Ukraine, who can travel visa-free to the Schengen members since June 2017. Unlike Georgia that saw a 31% drop in per months applications comparing January to June, applications from Ukraine decreased for only about 12.5%.

The EU Commission report on the fulfillment of visa-free requirements by Eastern Partnership countries published in December last year, asserts that irregular migration from Ukraine to EU remains high, while the increasing number of unfounded asylum applications in the EU from Georgian citizens is a source of concern.

Voices that the EU was considering initiating the emergency break, that suspends the visa free for Georgia increased during April this year, with the Georgian Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani warning that the visa-free travel to the Schengen zone for Georgians “is going through some particular difficulties.”

A year after Georgia was granted with visa liberalization, the then German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere had called the number of Georgian nationals seeking asylum in Schengen Countries “worrisome”.

The issue of Georgia becomes more concerning taking into account that since the declaration of independence in the early 1990s, the country has lost 1/3 of its population due to the ongoing mass exodus.

Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, & Venezuela

Two Central American countries and two others in South America, the citizens of which benefit of the visa-free travel between the EU+ and their country of origin, also filed more asylum requests in the first half of this year, compared to Kosovo.

Venezuela tops the table with 21,702 applications, or about 11 times more than Kosovo. With ongoing socioeconomic and political crisis in Venezuela that has intensified this year, the number of applications has also increased. While in March was reached the highest per month number of applications (4,304), the lowest was marked in January (2,653).

A report of the EASO on the number of asylum trends for this year, warns that the number of asylum seekers from Venezuela has quite increased.

“More strikingly, Venezuelans and Salvadorians have so far in 2019 lodged nearly as many applications as in the whole of 2018, whereas other Latin-American citizenships – such as Colombians, Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Peruvians – already outnumbered last year’s total,” the report reads.

Colombia is the second country with the highest number of requests for asylum in EU+, with a total of 13,356 per six months, and an increase of 72% from January through June. At the same time, in the first half of 2019, there were 4,659 asylum seekers from El Salvador and 3,480 from Honduras, each more than Kosovo.

Moldova, Nicaragua, & Peru

Moldovans started traveling visa free to the Schengen Area in 2014. Yet, in the first half of this year, 2,162 citizens of Moldova requested asylum in one of the EU+ countries, with about 380 being repeated applications.

Nicaraguans lodged 3,610 applications and Peruvians submitted another 2,488.

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