Passivization of addresses, non-compliance with legal provisions on language and education, unequal representation in public institutions and hate speech are just some of the problems it faces Albanian community in Serbia.
Passivization of addresses is a procedure by which the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) deletes the residence of a citizen from an address when it determines that he does not live there. The consequences are the loss of the right to an identity card, health card and vote. Albanians in Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa face this.
The editor of the Folj online portal Jeton Ismailji told "Vreme" that he knows people who live and work in Bujanovac, have Serbian citizenship, but still they are deleted from the civil registry.
"The problem is that the police check three times whether someone is at the address, so if they don't find him then, they delete him from the register. And a person, for example, can be abroad for a month. The Serbian community does not have that problem. I know Serbs who work in Belgrade or Nis, so they are not deleted from the register. So, it is a selective practice in relation to members of the Albanian community," explains Ismailji.
He adds that there was some initiative of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights in this matter to hold a dialogue with representatives of Albanians.
"It's black and white and it can be solved very easily - people work here, their children go to school here, it's very easy to check that they live there," emphasizes Ismailji.
The results of the population census conducted in 2022 record that there are a total of 61.687 Albanian men and women in Serbia, according to the data of the Republic Statistical Office (RZS).
This is significantly more than the census conducted in 2011, when the result was 5.809 inhabitants due to the boycott of the majority of members of the Albanian national community.
According to the last census, the Albanian community is most represented in Preševo, 31.340 of them out of 33.449 inhabitants in that municipality and Bujanovac, of them 25.465 out of 41.068 inhabitants.
Altogether, in the region of Southern and Eastern Serbia, the Albanian community, according to official data, has 58.145 inhabitants, data from the RZS.
Non-recognition of diplomas
Another problem faced by the Albanian community is the non-recognition of diplomas obtained in Kosovo. Ismailji says that more than 90 percent of young Albanians graduate from university in Kosovo.
Due to the non-recognition of diplomas in Serbia, most migrate to the countries of Western Europe - Germany, Austria or Switzerland. A part of the youth stays in Pristina where they finished their studies. Thus, people from Vranje and some other cities get jobs that they could do with a university degree.
Resolution and proposals on the position of Albanians
Member of Parliament from Bujanovac Šaip Kamberi submitted to the Serbian Parliament a proposal on the "Resolution on the position of Albanians in the Preševo Valley", however it was never included in the agenda.
The Resolution calls for the implementation of agreements from 2001, 2009 and 2013, the immediate suspension of administrative measures to passivize addresses, full compliance with legal provisions on language and education, the representation of Albanians in public institutions, the processing of hate speech against Albanians, the establishment of development funds with state and international support, "Bujanovačke" wrote.
In addition, the president of the municipality of Bujanovac, Arber Pajaziti, presented a 10-point proposal to the Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Demo Berisha, as well as to the representatives of the Coordination Body of the Government of Serbia for the municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa, to improve the position of Albanians. That meeting also caused conflicts on the Albanian political scene.
Furthermore, the OSCE mission developed a seven-point plan, which was adopted by the Government of Serbia in 2013 to improve the position of Albanians.
It foresees the integration of Albanians into state institutions, the economic development of the municipalities of Bujanovac, Preševo and Medveđa, the security of this area, the right to official use of the language, script and national symbols, the decentralization of the judiciary, the improvement of the rights of Albanians in the fields of education, culture and information, health and social protection.
So far, little has been implemented.
Ismailji sees the solution in the fact that the state of Serbia respects its laws and the Constitution because "then there would be no need for resolutions, proposals of seven or 10 points".
"The Constitution of Serbia is clear - the representation of the community in state institutions should reflect the number of members of the community living in that municipality. This is not implemented, so we are in the situation we are in," concluded the interlocutor of "Vremena".
Who shot the Serbian soldiers?
Local authority
Last year, a multi-ethnic local government was formed in Bujanovac after two decades of rule by Albanian parties. The head of the municipality is Arber Pajaziti from the Front for Change. The local government in Bujanovac has a total of 23 councilors together with the coalition around SNS, GG Dr. Dejan Stojanović, Saša Arsić and two Roma representatives.
After the formation of the local government, ministers of the Government of Serbia visited this municipality. For example, in August 2024, Darko Glišić, then the Minister for Capital Investments, was in Bujanovac.
The municipality of Preševo is led by Ardita Sinani from the Party for Democratic Action. She was an adviser to the Prime Minister of Kosovo (now in technical mandate) Aljbin Kurtii.
Then Kurti congratulated Sinana on Facebook on her new position and emphasized that he is ready for institutional cooperation with her.
"The most sincere and heartfelt congratulations to Ardita Sinana on the new position of Preševo municipality president, as well as to her residents who supported her in the election as the new municipal president. Her convincing victory in the elections was a clear determination of the citizens' will to have the municipality they want, which gives Ardita a strong mandate to lead and manage in that direction," wrote Kurti at the time.
Problem, crisis and instability
With the killing of three policemen near Dobrosin on the night of November 20-21, 2000, the conflict between the state security forces and armed Albanians gathered in the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (OVPMB) officially began, Bujanovačke wrote.
Serbs and Albanians on their way to Western Europe
According to the testimony of the participants, on January 26, 2000, around 200 armed, mostly younger people, dressed in black uniforms, with red-black-yellow OVPMB symbols on their caps, gathered in Dobrosin, which is located on the administrative line with Kosovo.
The reason for the formation of the OVPMB was the action of the Serbian police in the vicinity of Dobrosin, in which two locals were killed.
Serbian sources announced the next day that "two terrorists from the village of Dobrosin were killed", and Albanian sources said that "Serbian police forces killed the brothers Isa and Šaip Šaćiri, good and honest people, while they were bringing wood from the forest to their house with a tractor".
This paramilitary formation was disbanded after 17 months - on May 31, 2001, and the very next day, on June 1, the conflict between the Serbian Joint Security Forces (army and police) and the OVPMB ended.
The situation in this region is still unstable.
More than a decade ago, after Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence, a controversial proposal appeared on the exchange of territories, that is, "northern Kosovo for the Presevo Valley".
This idea was previously presented by the International Crisis Group (ICG), which analyzed relations between Kosovo and Serbia. However, this idea has not been adopted to date.
Serbian attack on the land security zone
Recently, the non-governmental organization CASA, which operates in the north of Kosovo, conducted a survey of public opinion in Kosovo (July, 2025).
The publication "Report on public opinion research - Perceptions of compromise in the process of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia: Difficult issues before us" showed the result that 65,92 percent of Kosovo Albanians do not think that the exchange of territories (for example, the North of Kosovo for the Presevo Valley in Serbia) could contribute to reducing tensions between Kosovo and Serbia.
On the contrary, they believe that it would lead to new conflicts and instability.
