The former chairman of the Albanian National Council, Ragmi Mustafi, has strongly reacted to a recent claim made in Serbia suggesting that “no Albanian has expressed interest in joining the Serbian Police.”
In a social media statement, Mustafi called this claim a “classic manipulation of the truth.” He stated that in every announced recruitment, Albanians have applied in significant numbers, but none have been accepted not even those who met all the basic criteria.
“Since 2008, not a single Albanian from Presheva, Bujanovc, or Medvegja has been admitted to Serbia’s Police Academy,” he emphasized.
According to Mustafi, the discrimination is deep and intentional, and the most recent case the May 2025 recruitment is “the clearest evidence”: out of 43 accepted candidates, not a single one was Albanian.
“This is institutional discrimination, not a lack of interest ,it’s a colonial mindset, not a lack of applications,” Mustafi declared.
He added that many young Albanians have been discouraged by the injustices in the selection procedures, including political eliminations and discriminatory treatment during testing and interviews particularly toward those related to former UÇPMB members.
“There are documented cases where Albanian candidates were not even invited to the final stage, despite having passed the preliminary tests,” Mustafi said.
Comparing the situation to that in Kosovo, he stated that the Republic of Kosovo is “an example of institutional participation of minorities, especially the Serbian one,” calling Kosovo a “champion in ensuring legal frameworks not only in the Western Balkans but in Europe as a whole.”
For Mustafi, the issue is not a lack of interest from Albanians but a lack of institutional will to include them. “No Albanians are not missing from the police because they don’t want to be there, but because they’re not allowed,” he concluded.
