Kurti invites Albanians in Serbia to participate in the population census

 Albin Kurti speaking to the media end rising up his right hand

 The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has invited Albanians living in Serbia to participate in the population and property registration process.

This process started on October 1 and will last until the end of this month.

Through a video message published on social networks, Kurti said that Albanians living in Serbia "constantly face national and human discrimination, and recently also the deactivation of their addresses".

According to Kurti, this process for Albanians is not just a matter of statistics.

"As Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, I invite Albanians living in Serbia, particularly in the municipalities of Preshevo, Medvegja, and Bujanoc, to respond to the registrars, registering themselves and their family members. I invite you to respond to the pression by getting registered. Respond to passivation by registering every Albanian. Even those who are temporarily residing in the diaspora and Kosovo. Prove decisively that you are there", said Kurti.

Political representatives from all parties representing the Albanian community in Serbia, through a statement signed in July of this year, pledged to participate in the population, household and housing census in Serbia.

Albanians in the south of Serbia - in Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanoc - boycotted the 2011 census.

According to the estimates of the international community, about 60 thousand Albanians live in Serbia, mainly in the three municipalities in the south, also known as the Presheva Valley.

In succession, the political parties of Albanians in Serbia have complained that the Albanian minority faces discrimination. They have also expressed concern about the process of passivation of addresses, which according to Albanian politicians, is being done to change the "ethnic structure" of the three municipalities where the majority of the Albanian minority lives in Serbia.

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". Persons whose addresses are deactivated cannot be provided with a new identity card or passport. Consequently, according to the Helsinki Committee, they are prevented from registering their car, buying or selling property, accessing health care and social services, and voting in local or general elections.