World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

Accurate demographic data concerning the size of the Roma/Ashkalia/Egyptian populations is lacking. Exercising the right to self-identification is difficult in Kosovo, mainly because people are afraid to openly state their ethnicity for fear of discrimination, but also because others do not necessarily respect people's identity, for example international and local actors often grouping Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptians into one.
Most of the estimated few thousand Ashkalia speak Albanian and their first language and practice Islam. Until the 1990s most Ashkalia and Egyptians identified themselves as Roma. In the 1990, they began to identify themselves as distinct groups. They have not been accepted by the Albanian community. They are widely discriminated against and excluded from economic life. Although the Ashkalia and Egyptians have one reserved seat each in the Kosovo Assembly, they have been excluded from real participation in political life.

In June 2007 the non-governmental Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) released a survey of ethnic minorities conducted during 2006. Whilst it found progress in majority Albanian acceptance of Turkish, Bosniak, Ashkali and Egyptian minorities, including their improved freedom of movement, there was little improvement for Serbs and Roma. The HLC survey reported that. Roma-language education was unavailable in either the government or parallel Serb school systems.

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