Tide Of Albanian Refugees Floods Italy ‘We Can’t Throw Them Into The Sea,’ Italian Leader Says
The tide of refugees fleeing the chaos in Albania washed insistently upon the Italian coast Monday, bringing to more than 6,600 the number braving choppy waters, creaky boats and the uncertainties of a life in another country to escape the violence at home.
A rusting Albanian navy vessel chugged into Brindisi Monday night carrying 101 civilians. Italian naval authorities escorted the commandeered ship into the military section of the port, where the women and children were quartered for the night as the men were taken to the local police station.
Its arrival followed Sunday’s harvest of 858 desperate passengers who arrived on an Albanian Navy frigate that ran aground a mile offshore. Italian coast guard personnel here tallied at 6,527 the number who had landed here on 130 assorted craft since the exodus of Albanian boat people began landing here five days ago. Among the ships were much of Albanian Navy fleet, including torpedo boats, minesweepers and patrol boats carrying deserting officers and crew.
The refugees are fleeing chaos and bloodshed that erupted 10 days ago and gradually spread throughout the impoverished Balkan country. The violence, which has claimed at least 100 lives and rendered the government of President Sali Berisha helpless, exploded in the wake of a pyramid-scheme scandal that impoverished two-thirds of Albania’s 5 million people.
As Italian authorities struggled to curtail the flow of ships and smaller craft ferrying terrified Albanians across the Adriatic Sea, the thousands who have managed to navigate the more than 40 miles to get here in the last five days have filled to overflowing the facilities used to house them: churches, gymnasiums, hospitals, low-rent hotels, parking structures, campgrounds and private homes.
The mayor of this principal coastal city, Lorenzo Maggi, said “Brindisi is completely saturated,” even as Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi evoked both his country’s frustration and its obligation. “We can’t throw them into the sea,” he said.
Italian authorities Monday began funneling the tide of fleeing Albanians, including families with young children, out of the suddenly overwhelmed Puglia region and northward to receiving centers in the Molise and Abruzzo regions. The prefect of Brindisi, Andrea Gentile, said “the problem is no longer just that of Puglia but that of all Italy,” according to one news report.
In Ostuni, 12 miles north of Brindisi, a clutch of about 20 young Albanian men was chafing Monday night after three days of detention in a former town jail put into service as a crowded dormitory.
“It was war. There were Kalashnikovs and guns - children, men, everyone was shooting,” recalled Altin Lika, 21, who arrived in Brindisi three days ago after making the crossing from the Albanian port of Durres.