Kosovo Migrants Flown Home from Hungary

Around 70 Kosovar immigrants were flown back from Budapest to Prishtina  on a flight organized by the Ministry of Interior of Kosovo.

The passengers were a wider group of Kosovar migrants to countries including Austria, Sweden, Germany, Slovakia, Finland and Hungary whose temporary asylum status in these countries had expired.

They were sent to Budapest and flown from there to Prishtina. Most will not be part of the reintegration program that the Kosovo government is offering to the latest wave of EU-bound migrants - which includes medical help and assistance and mediating in finding employment in Kosovo.

Betim Uka and his wife, Fexhirije, a young couple from Podujevo, who were held in a camp in Hungary for 40 days, said conditions in the camp were difficult but he still planned on leaving Kosovo once again as soon as possible.

"I've tried to leave Kosovo three times. There is nothing I can do here," Uka said. He said that many young people were in the camps as well as families. "We were treated very harshly by the Hungarian authorities," he added.

His father, Sahit, was waiting at the airport in Kosovo for him with his mother. "There is no perspective from Kosovo for my son. There are 10 of us in this family, and none of us is employed," he said.

Sahit Uka said that although the family owns some land and works it, they are unable to make a living from farming. He said they had nothing to do with Betim's flight. "We didn't give our son any money for the trip, he had his own. We tried to prevent him from leaving, but he can't find himself here."

Nikola Mihajlovic, a Kosovo Serb from the divided northern town of Mitrovica, was also returned on the flight with his wife and two children. He had spent two years...