What kind of treatment for the Diaspora?

Transparency Forum, on Tuesday evening in Prizren, held the fourth round of the “Confront” debate on the topic “What treatment for the Diaspora?” Panellists in this debate were Mr. Ilir Baldedaj, director of Municipal Administration, Mr. Ruzhdi Hoxha, coordinator of the Civil Registry Office in Prizren and Mr. Vesel Gashi, the Kosovo Police officer. Panellists faced the Transparency Forum members, consisting of journalists and civil society activists and representatives of opposition political parties in Prizren, whereas the debate was moderated by the journalist, Ms. Myrvete Axhami.
 
At the beginning of the debate the panellists introduced the actions taken by the municipality and the police in order to provide best administrative services and better security conditions for expatriates. They claimed that expatriates, as well as other citizens, are served effectively with civil registry documents. Conversely, the representative of the Kosovo Police stressed that this institution has drafted an operational plan that is applied over the period when the city is frequented by expatriates, including traffic safety, but also on prevention of various criminal acts.

On the other side, Transparency Forum members and representatives of opposition political parties have assessed that institutions have paid no attention enough to properly tackle the issues of the expatriates, which in essence are as well the everyday issues the citizens of Prizren municipality face with. According to them, local government has no governing program and as a result no strategy on how to provide a better treatment for expatriates. The fact that the municipal government of Prizren has no records on the number of expatriates from this municipality, as indicated by them, proves the failure of the system towards Diaspora and, at the same time, in addressing of their concerns thus highlighting the inability to attract investments from them for enabling local economic development.

Transparency Forum shall continue in organizing regular roundtables within the “Confront” cycle of debates.