Kosovo to ‘Temporarily’ Accept Migrants Deported from U.S.

The government of Kosovo reportedly agreed this week to “temporarily” accept a small number of migrants deported from the United States until they can be returned to their home countries.

Government spokesman Perparim Kryeziu told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on Wednesday that up to 50 migrants will be accepted, for up to one year, with the goal of “facilitating their safe return to their country of origin.”

“The government has expressed its willingness to engage, with the possibility of selecting individuals from a proposed list, as long as they meet certain criteria related to the rule of law and public order,” Kryeziu said.

Bloomberg News reported last week that the State Department is putting out feelers to Balkan nations, including Serbia, Moldova, and Kosovo, to accept deported illegal aliens.

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As it turned out, Kosovo was the first country to accept U.S. requests to house deportees. This could be a point of some friction with Serbia, since Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008, and the Serbian government does not recognize its independence.

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Kosovo is holding similar discussions with the United Kingdom and has already agreed to house criminals who were deported from Denmark.

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The deal with Denmark involves a prison in the eastern Kosovar city of Gjilan. The facility is currently being emptied of domestic inmates so it can be expanded and upgraded to meet Danish penal standards. When the renovations are complete, Denmark plans to house about 300 deported criminals from non-European Union countries in the facility.

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Italy was the first European country to actually send deported migrants to Eastern Europe, transferring 40 rejected asylum seekers to Albania in April. Italian law would permit the migrants to be detained for up to 18 months before final deportation.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had planned to send a much larger contingent of migrants to camps in Albania, but Italian court rulings obliged her to send only migrants whose application for asylum have been decisively rejected.

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Kosovo previously agreed to accept several hundred refugees from Afghanistan after President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Some of the Afghans were not happy with their accommodations, which they described as more akin to a prison than a refugee camp. {snip}

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