First Kosovo repatriation flight leaves Switzerland

The first repatriation flight with about 90 ethnic Albanian refugees left Switzerland for the Balkans on Tuesday, taking a first group of voluntary returnees back to their home region.

The first repatriation flight with about 90 ethnic Albanian refugees left Switzerland for the Balkans on Tuesday, taking a first group of voluntary returnees back to their home region.

The Kosovar returnees were flown to the Macedonian capital Skopje, the Federal Refugee Office said. The airport of Kosovo’s capital Pristina is still blocked for repatriation flights.

From Skopje, buses accompanied by police took the ethnic Albanians to several towns in Kosovo, including the capital Pristina, Prizren, Urosevac, Pec and Jacovica.

Most of the voluntary returnees in this first of seven return charter flights qualified for the Swiss government’s resettlement support package, which includes SFr2,000 ($1,333)for each adult and another SFr1,000 ($666) for every child. The money was handed over in cash after the arrival in Kosovo.

The refugee office said that, next year, financial support for voluntary returnees would very likely be reduced by about half.

The Swiss authorities say they estimate that about 2,000 people will likely want to return to Kosovo voluntarily this year. Eight hundred people had already applied for a return flight, the refugee office said.

On Wednesday, government aid officials called on Kosovar refugees in Switzerland to return home as soon as possible in order not to be left behind in the rapid reconstruction process now under way in the war-ravaged Serbian province.

The deputy head of the Swiss Disaster Relief Unit, Toni Frisch, said refugees should either go back or send at least one family member back to Kosovo to set up contacts in this crucial reconstruction phase.

Frisch, who had returned the previous day from a five-day trip to Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, said those refugees who would return a year from now risked left being behind in the reconstruction of housing and businesses.

He said returnees were now given unprecedented support in repairing their homes, including “shelter kits” and construction supplies paid for by the Swiss authorities and distributed by the U.N. refugee agency.


From staff and wire reports.