AT A GLANCE
- More than 3,500 refugees arrived by train, on buses and on
foot at the Blace and Lojane border crossings in the FYR of Macedonia over the past 24
hours. Camps are seriously overcrowded with no space for new arrivals.
- Around 500 refugees crossed into Albania through the Morini
border yesterday and 500 others entered via Montenegro.
- More than 20,000 refugees have left the FYR of Macedonia
under the humanitarian evacuation program.
- The estimated total numbers of refugees in the region are
365,500 in Albania and nearly 139,000 in the FYR of Macedonia. More than 63,000 displaced
Kosovars remain in Montenegro.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
ALBANIA
On Monday, nearly 500 persons crossed the Albanian border
at Morini. Some arrived in cars, others said they had been taken by bus to Prizren and
were dropped off near the border. The largest group of approximately 230 refugees,
virtually all of them women and children, reached Albania late Monday afternoon. They were
emotionally and physically exhausted, and many burst into tears as they crossed the
border. They described how fighting had broken out near their village of Dragacina, north
of Prizren, forcing them to flee. Their flight lasted six days and some of the women
reported incidents of physical abuse en route. A group of the men who crossed yesterday
told UNHCR staff that a new wave of arrests was underway in the villages near Prizren.
They reported that men between the ages of 15 and 65 had been rounded up by Serbian forces
and told that they would have to do physical labor for the government.
Efforts to move refugees out of the Kukes and Krume areas
in northern Albania continue. A total of 5,500 refugees, including 700 refugees from the
town of Krume, were moved out on Monday to other areas in the central and southern part of
the country. One camp near the town of Krume, the so-called "chicken farm,"
where the already bad conditions had sharply deteriorated due to heavy rains over the past
week, is now nearly empty.
Many refugees have been reluctant to leave the area, not
wanting to leave their tractors — their sole remaining possession — behind.
UNHCR has been working with the authorities on a solution to this problem. Yesterday, in a
welcome change of policy, the Albanian authorities in Kukes allowed around 600 tractors to
be driven south from the Kukes area.
Nonetheless, many refugees remaining in Kukes have voiced
a reluctance to move south due to rumors of insecurity and lack of accommodation in
southern areas. In an attempt to encourage refugees to move, and to inform them about
conditions in other parts of Albania, UNHCR is organizing "go-and-see" visits by
refugee elders and leaders to prospective relocation sites in central/southern Albania.
Initial visits, which will be made by helicopter, are planned today to sites at Peshkopi,
Bulqize and Burrel, where accommodation is available for up to 8,000 refugees.
NATO is reinforcing logistical support in Kukes. A
helicopter landing site is due for completion in the coming days, additional warehouse
facilities are being prepared, and improvements are being made to roads and the
transportation fleet.
UNICEF is continuing its campaign to immunize refugee
children in the Kukes area. More than 16,000 refugee children have been vaccinated against
measles and polio through the campaign. The program is now being extended to local
Albanian children.
FYR of MACEDONIA
A total of 3,500 new refugees arrived in the FYR of
Macedonia on Monday. Around 2,800 came by train and more than a dozen buses which arrived
at the Blace border crossing at mid-day. The train departed from Kosovo Polje and made
several stops along the route, including at Lipljan, Rubovce, Babljak and Urosevac.
Refugees reported that the train picked up very few additional passengers at these spots,
since it was already overcrowded. The buses arrived from Urosevac. Another 800 refugees
entered the FYR of Macedonia late Monday night through the border crossing at Lojane. Most
of these arrivals were accommodated by local host families. Many new arrivals from Lipljan
recounted stories of atrocities in and around the town.
The new arrivals at Blace yesterday were squeezed into
whatever remaining space could be found in the camps, which are now seriously overcrowded.
The new transit site at Blace is nearing capacity, with 2,200 already registered at the
facility as of Monday morning. Capacity at the transit camp is around 2,500.
Work on the new camp at Cegrane continues. The camp is due
to open on Thursday this week, with an initial capacity for up to 5,000 refugees.
Construction work on the two remaining sections of the camp should bring the total camp
capacity to 20,000. UNHCR is concerned, however, that the authorities’ insistence
that local contractors carry out the work is slowing matters down considerably.
UNHCR field staff have continued to assess the situation
of refugees in the mountainous area around the small village of Mala Malina.
The registration exercise conducted by UNHCR and IOM in
the refugee camps has been completed. Just over 55,000 refugees were registered in the
camps as of 20 April. Mechanisms have been established to register new arrivals and the
exercise is now being extended to refugees living with host families.
The need for children’s schools in the camps is
acute. UNICEF chaired an education co-ordination meeting with interested agencies
yesterday. A new UNICEF-supported school has opened in Radusa camp and one will start soon
in Bojane. Space for classrooms continues to be a critical problem, as long as the camps
remain so overcrowded.
MONTENEGRO
The security situation in Montenegro has not changed over
the past few days, with tension persisting in the border areas with Kosovo but no major
incidents reported. The border crossing between Montenegro and Croatia at Debeli Brijeg
has remained open and visa and entry procedures are unchanged.
Displaced Kosovars have continued to move into Albania.
Numbers are difficult to confirm with certainty, but the UNHCR office in Shkodra reported
500 arrivals on Monday.
HUMANITARIAN EVACUATION PROGRAM
The number of refugees who have left the FYR of Macedonia
by air passed the 20,000 mark on Monday. In view of the overcrowded conditions in all the
camps, UNHCR has welcomed the readiness of some countries to select refugees from camps
other than Stankovac I and II.
On 26 April, 1,252 refugees were evacuated to Croatia,
Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Turkey. Flights to Austria, Finland,
France, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey are scheduled for today.
|
Document compiled by Dr S D Stein