Germany to return 14,000 Kosovo refugees

Germany has decided to return 14,000 refugees from Kosovo to their homeland, 10 years after the war, writes Suddeutsche Zeitung.

There are currently over 14,000 refugees from Kosovo, who have had their applications for permanent residency turned down, awaiting deportation. All individuals without permanent residency status in Germany, and who can with certainty be proven to have come to Germany from Kosovo, must return home.

Suddeutsche Zeitung adds that a bilateral agreement between Germany and Kosovo is due to be ratified this autumn.The process began in 2008, when 900 people were returned to Kosovo, writes the daily.

Despite criticism that it is not up to speed with the current political situation in the province, the German government is sure that the returnees will fit back in quickly, based on information on the fall in ethnically-motivated attacks in the region.

For years, Germany has been trying to reduce its contingent of Kosovo refugees, offering them financial incentives and bearing the costs for their return, though the majority have turned a deaf ear to that “assistance,” the daily states.