Global perspective Human stories

More than 1 million Kosovo residents registered: UN mission

More than 1 million Kosovo residents registered: UN mission

More than 1 million Kosovo residents have been registered as a result of the process that began last year, according to the United Nations mission in the province.

Peter Schumann, co-head of the Department of Public Services, told the Kosovo Transitional Council yesterday that 1,121,645 "habitual residents" of Kosovo had registered as of last week, as a result of the various ongoing efforts. Most Kosovo residents now possess identity cards issued by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Mr. Schumann said. In addition, more than 50,000 have UNMIK travel documents, and many have used them to travel outside Kosovo.

Mr. Schumann said special programmes were encouraging registration of Kosovo Turks and Serbs, who did not participate in the exercise last year, as well as others who might have returned from abroad or turned 16. Some 5,600 Kosovo Turks were added to the civil registry this summer, as well as over 48,000 people belonging to the Serb and other communities.

According to Mr. Schumann, the identity card system was totally overhauled thanks to the work of Public Services' Kosovar staff, who re-entered data for 900,000 residents into the registrar's computer system after errors plagued last year's ID project. All but 100,000 identity cards had been picked up from the Public Services Department, and UNMIK was aiming at delivering the remaining cards to people who are over 60 years old.