Swiss ambassador to Pristina, Jean-Hubert Lebet (left) and Skender Reçica, Kosovo's labour and social welfare minister, signed the document in Pristina.
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Switzerland and Kosovo have agreed to resume the payment of old age and disability pensions suspended eight years ago amid cases of fraud.
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Currently an estimated 50,000 people from Kosovo who used to work in Switzerland can’t receive their social security payments if they return to their country of origin in southeast Europe.
Representatives from the Kosovo government and the Swiss ambassador to Pristina on Friday signed an accord which provides the resumption of payments and measures to combat fraud, according to a statement by the Swiss interior ministry.
The accord, which is subject to approval by the parliaments in both countries, is set to come into force next year. The Swiss government approved the agreement in March.
Following the military conflict between Serbia and its southern province of Kosovo in the late 1990s, Switzerland has become sponsor of aid, reconstruction and stabilisation programmes in the Balkan state. Kosovo declared its independence in 2008.
Beside Germany, Switzerland has been a popular destination for emigrants over the past decade. An estimated 350,000 Kosovars have settled in Switzerland.
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Daily life in Kosovo
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On February 17, 2008, the former Serbian province of Kosovo declared its independence. The Swiss government was one of the first to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. Ethnic Albanians make up 92 per cent of the population of 2.2 million, but Serbs still dominate the north of the country.
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Trying to make Kosovo work
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Switzerland is one of the countries trying to help create jobs in Kosovo and stop people leaving in droves in search of better lives abroad.
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As of April 1, Kosovars have been unable to have their retirement and disability insurance payments sent to Kosovo. Instead, the workers must remain in Switzerland to receive those funds. The Swiss government cancelled the payments over concerns of fraud and abuse, which prompted an inquiry in 2008. It failed after investigators received death threats.…
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Accords with countries in the former Yugoslavia and with Turkey that govern payments to disabled workers once employed in Switzerland would also be renegotiated, Interior Minister Didier Burkhalter said. Switzerland pays pensions to roughly 59,000 people living abroad. About 43,000 of those are European Union nationals. A few hundred of payments go to people in…
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The Federal Social Security Office believes the overall rate of abuse is around one per cent despite allegations of widespread fraud raised by rightwing political parties, notably against foreigners in Switzerland. About 300,000 people receive payments from the disability insurance scheme, including 40,000 who live abroad, mostly in European Union countries. Some 4,000 beneficiaries live…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.