Serbian patriarch to world leaders: Do not let Serbs be expelled from Kosovo-Metohija

BELGRADE - In a letter sent on Friday, Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church called on Pope Leo XIV, Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and other major European and world leaders to use their authority to get Pristina to halt the enforcement of an extremely discriminatory law on foreigners.

Other recipients of the letter are French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, UK PM Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as well as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany, the Serbian Orthodox Church said in a statement.

Enforcement of the law would not put into doubt only the work of the Serbian university in Kosovska Mitrovica and primary and secondary schools using Serbian curriculums, as well as the operation of the entire health care system providing medical care to Kosovo-Metohija Serbs, but also the survival of the Serbs and Orthodox holy sites, the patriarch noted.

"Enforcement of this law would leave the Serbs without the ability to get education and health care, while those working in the education and health care sectors would lose their jobs, which would lead to an even larger mass-scale, if not final, departure of Orthodox Serbs from that centuries-old Christian land, where around 1300 Orthodox churches, monasteries and other, previously destroyed, Christian holy sites remain to this day," he added.

Like no other territory in Europe, Kosovo-Metohija has the highest concentration of Christian holy sites - including four that are inscribed in the UNESCO list of world heritage in danger - in spite of the said destruction, the patriarch noted.

Patriarch Porfirije added that the Serbian Orthodox Church persevered in a search for a peaceful solution and expected the Serbian authorities to do everything that was possible to find a compromise solution.

"Human lives are the most sacred, and it is our duty to preserve them," he noted.

Under Pristina's so-called law on foreigners, announced to enter into force on March 15, everyone without documents issued by the Pristina provisional institutions will be treated as a foreigner.