Kosovo, more than 3000 people have renounced citizenship in the 2019

A large number of citizens of the Kosovo diaspora has renounced citizenship of Kosovo during this year.

Officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo have announced to "Radio Free Europe" that only in the period January-August 2019 ben 3519 people have renounced Kosovar citizenship.

Rroksana Qarri, director of the ministry's public relations office, said for "Radio Free Europe" that over the years the number of people who renounce citizenship of Kosovo is growing.

The main cause of this trend, according to the director, is that many European countries do not allow dual citizenship to those who come from countries that are not members of the European Union, like Kosovo.

"During the period January-August 2019, 3519 people renounced citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo. The reason why these people renounce citizenship is to be attributed to many EU countries that do not allow dual citizenship for citizens from non-EU countries.

Given that a large number of our citizens have lived in these countries for many years and that a large part of these were born in these countries by acquiring the right to citizenship, they are forced to renounce Kosovar citizenship in order to acquire the citizenship of that country."- said Rroksana Qarri.

The data of recent years

According to data from the Kosovo Interior Ministry, from 2009 to 2018 more than 40.000 citizens of Kosovo have renounced Kosovo citizenship, for an annual average of about 5.000 citizens.

According to a report by the Kosovo statistics agency, Kosovo citizens living in different countries of the world are estimated to be around 800.000. However, officially about half (400.000) are citizens registered in the diaspora register of the country, a process that has been started by the Kosovo authorities for some years.

Most of the Kosovar diaspora lives in Germany, followed by Switzerland, Italy and other countries.