Marika Dee

Not My Country

In recent years, several thousands of people, many belonging to the Roma, Ashkali or Egyptian (RAE) community, have been forcibly returned to Kosovo by Western European countries. Germany is one of the countries expelling RAE families that have been living there for a long time, often 15 years or more. The families had a “toleration status” in Germany, meaning they had no secure right to stay. The deportations take place in the framework of a “readmission agreement” that Germany concluded with Kosovo, the latter being under political pressure to accept this agreement as a stepping stone to visa liberalisation with the European Union. However, Kosovo does not have the economic structure nor a secure and stable social environment to receive these families. In spite of this, an estimated 12 000 people will be returned by Germany in the coming years, half of them children. 

 

Many of the children were not only brought up in Germany but were born there as well. They feel German. Prior to deportation most children never set foot in Kosovo and often do not speak Albanian or Serbian. Although the whole family suffers from the deportation, children are particularly affected. They feel uprooted and suffer from a loss of identity. In Kosovo, the children and their parents fall into a marginal existence. The families live in poverty. They have almost no income opportunities. Housing is cramped, unhealthy and precarious. Families live in constant fear to become homeless. Access to education is problematic and most children are not able to stay in school. Many of the children do not have civil documents for Kosovo. Therefore their access to education, welfare and medical services is blocked. Furthermore, numerous families don’t feel secure in Kosovo. They feel intimidated and discriminated both by the Albanian majority and the Serbian minority. While in Germany the children went to school and had a social life, in Kosovo they are mostly confined to the house. The families’ hopes and dreams are shattered. 

This photo essay documents the life of a few deported families that now live on the margins of Kosovo society. 

  • Suzana Jahitovic and her son Mevruz in the kitchen of their home in Osterode camp in northern Mitrovica. Before being expelled in 2005, the Jahitovic family lived for 16 years in Germany.
  • Leposavic camp in northern Kosovo used to be a storage for tanks of the Yugoslav army. Now it houses Roma families who were internally displaced in the war. Upon their return from Germany, the Hasani family had nowhere to stay and now lives with stepfamily in a small unit.
  • The Rexhepi family sit in the only heated room of their house in Midvec.
  • Florim Mujolli and his daughter Nadira. The Mujolli’s were expelled after having lived twenty years in Germany. All of the six children were born over there.
  • The damp basement room in the mahalla Botes/Shtatore in Peja, where the five members of the Haxhija family live.
  • Xhavit Haxhija and his youngest son Petrit. Thirteen-year-old Petrit plays computer games on his old computer.
  • Ramize Qunaj smokes a cigarette in her house in the mahalla Botes/Shtatore in Peja. Before being expelled in 2010, the Qunaj family lived over 20 years in Germany.
  • Liridona Hajolli talks to her cousin who joins the family for a typical dinner of potatoes, some pickled vegetables and bread.
  • Documents issued by the German government authorizing a one way journey to Kosovo for Sedat and Nasmija Hasani. Both boys were born in Germany and consider it their homecountry.
  • Nermina takes a nap in her home in Fushe Kosovo. Seventeen-year-old Nermina was born in Germany and lived there her whole live before being expelled in 2010. She wanted to be a nurse but can’t continue her education in Kosovo.
  • The neighbourhood in Fushe Kosovo where the Hajolli and Mujolli families live.
  • Twenty-year-old Shyhrete Berisha is seven months pregnant. In 2009 she was the only one of her family sent back from Germany.
  • Bukuria Berisha and two of her sisters on the balcony of their uncle’s house where they live for the moment. The family feels that they will not be much longer tolerated there and fear to find themselves without housing. Thirteen-year-old Bukuria wanted to be a midwife in Germany but like her sisters no longer goes to school.
  • Leposavic camp in northern Kosovo used to be a storage for tanks of the Yugoslav army. Now it houses Roma families who were internally displaced in the war. Upon their return from Germany, the Hasani family had nowhere to stay and now lives with stepfamily in a small unit.
  • The first of two damp basement rooms in which the Haxhija family live in the mahalla Botes/Shtatore in Peja.
  • Feride Mujolli holds her ill daughter Selina.
  • Avni Osmani expresses his despair about the problems he, his wife Bagrija and their five children face.
  • Morning at the Hajolli’s in Fushe Kosovo. Everyone except the older son sleeps, on the couch or on thin mattresses laid out on the floor, in the only heated room of the house. Ilir, the youngest child, gets up early to go to school while his older sisters Liridona and Valentina, who can't continue their education, are still sleeping. Before heading to school, Ilir watches cartoons on German television.
  • Besim Hajolli tends the wood stove while his daughter Liridona wakes up. Before being expelled in 2010, the Hajolli family lived 15 years in Germany.
  • Zahide, sixteen years old, helps her mother Ismeta. Zahide, like her younger brother Mohammed, was born deaf and mute. In Germany, where the family lived for fifteen years, both disabled children attended a special school, but in Kosovo there is no such school near Fushe Kosovo where they live. The only specialized school is far away in Prizren and the family can’t pay the daily transport or the accomodation costs in Prizren. As a result Mohammed and Zahide no longer go to school.
  • The kitchen in the one room apartment of the Sahitoviq family in Obiliq. Since the beginning of 2011 the family no longer has electricity.
  • Femija Sahitoviq, father of six children, suffers from a severe mental illness and is unable to work.
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