Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, so citizens of that country can enter BiH with a visa that is granted “only in exceptional cases”. At the same time, residents of Kosovo, who have Serbian citizenship, can enter BiH without a passport, under special conditions.
Besides Serbia, BiH is the only country in the Western Balkans that has not recognized Kosovo. Recognition requires the consent of all three members of the Presidency of BiH, and since 2008, when Kosovo declared independence, all members from Republika Srpska (RS) have opposed it.
Political representatives from this entity in BiH in the Council of Ministers of BiH stopped the ratification of the Agreement on freedom of movement with identity cards in the Western Balkans, which was signed on November 3rd, 2022.
According to the decision of the BiH Council of Ministers in 2012, citizens of Kosovo cannot travel to BiH as tourists. They are obliged to obtain a visa, which is not affixed to the passport, but issued on a special form “only in exceptional cases” at the BiH embassies in Skopje, Podgorica, and Belgrade.
“He can go to Belgrade, but not to Tuzla”
Rizah Sokoli, president of the “Dardania” Association, which brings together Albanians in BiH, says it’s absurd that he can meet his family living in five countries without any problems in the middle of Belgrade, where Kosovar citizens can travel freely, but he can’t in Tuzla, the city in northern BiH where he earned his pension.
“For some there is justice, for some, there is not,” Sokoli comments on the fact that citizens of Serbia can cross the border with an identity card or birth certificate and student card, while those who only have Kosovo citizenship cannot enter BiH even with a passport.
Goods are allowed, but people aren’t
BiH and Kosovo are signatories to the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), which abolished customs duties and allowed goods to travel freely between the two countries.
According to the data of the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, companies from BiH export six times more goods to Kosovo than they import every year. Total exports from BiH to Kosovo in 2022 amounted to about 71 million euros, while imports from Kosovo amounted to about 11.7 million euros.
A third of the goods exported from BiH to Kosovo are iron and steel, followed by meat, dairy, and wood products. BiH mostly imports finished iron and steel products, rubber, and raw leather from Kosovo, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
