The Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian (RAE) communities continue to face high unemployment in Kosovo. According to RAE communities’ representatives, 90% of members of these communities do not have employment contracts. The government of Kosovo has drafted a strategy for integration of RAE communities in 2008. However, RAE communities representatives say that this strategy has remained only on paper and it was never implemented in practice. Osman Osmani from the Roma NGO “Nevo koncepti”, told Radio Free Europe that although it is said that around 42 thousand people of these communities live in Kosovo, about five thousand of them have already migrated to the European Union countries, due to lack of jobs and basic live conditions. “In regards to employment, even though there have been several attempts for youth training and temporary jobs for three to six months, this does not change the real difficult situation of the RAE communities,” Osmani said. Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Qazim Rrahmani, told Radio Free Europe that the ministry is currently working on the development of employment policies. According to him, these programs will include RAE communities, first sending them to vocational training centers, and then finding employment for them. “We have a legal obligation to have 10% RAE communities as part of the central and local administration. Also in the private sector, we encourage them to include this category of society, and I think that they are working in this direction. The employment concern for the RAE communities is the same as with other communities, maybe a little bigger because of their educational qualification,” Rrahmani said.