Electronic registration of Serbia to legalize the passivation of Albanians – Exit
Only a few days left until the deadline for electronic registration of the population of Serbia (October 1 – October 31, 2022). The deadline is expected to mark a sad end for those Albanians whose residential addresses have been made “passive”, as they will eventually be excluded from the registration process, losing their citizenship rights guaranteed by the Serbian constitution.
The Helsinki Committee, describing the passivization of Albanians “administrative ethnic cleansing“, has received several complaints from Serbian Albanian citizens about the ongoing registration process, as they are unable to register because the “registration system” does not accept them.
The people excluded from registration by the system are all of Albanian ethnic background. They live either in the country or abroad, but their residential addresses in Serbia have been changed to inactive and most of them do not have ID.
Haki Hajminovic has lived as an immigrant in Switzerland for several years, and after three weeks he has returned to the village of Tupalla Medvegja to register himself and his family as Serbian citizens.
Like many other “passivized” Albanians, Haki was denied registration for the same reason.
When Haki was denied the basic right of registration, he became frustrated when speaking with a government official in charge of the process, and was later reported to the police for his alleged threats.
Haki Hajminovic is now at risk of criminal liability after essentially requesting registration.
Muharrem Salihu, head of the Serbian Albanian Forum for Economic Development (AFEDS), says that “passivated Serbian Albanians are deeply resentful of their representatives, who promised that they can register and get their home addresses back, but are denied this basic right, as the next step to cover up the crime of passivization that was also intended to cover up Kosovo post-war forced deportation.”
The Helsinki Committee, on the other hand, demands that an institutional solution be found as quickly as possible.
However, the 2022 Population, Family and Housing Register Act, approved a year earlier, does not include passivated citizens. It envisages the registration of houses, but paradoxically it does not include the registration of the owners, who until now have been citizens of Serbia.
Serbia’s Albanian minority has been subject to systematic ethnic cleansing for centuries, but after the Kosovo war and especially in recent years, the Serbian government has opted for the so-called “passivization” of their addresses.
Thousands of Serbian Albanians live in Kosovo without ID, and thousands more have left the country.
Muharrem Salihu says that the campaign by the Serbian authorities is precise and spot on.
– The real situation in Medvegja and other Albanian-majority municipalities is now dramatic. Finally, Albanians cannot register, and we do not have an exact number of Albanians living here. This registration is a tool to remove the Albanian population from these countries once and for all.”