Regional: Refugees/IDPs from Kosovo

Albania

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 367,200 refugees in Albania. In the past 24 hours, 2,500 refugees entered Albania at the Morina border crossing. Many refugees came from the Djakovica area of Kosovo.
• UNHCR reports that over 2,000 refugees moved from Kukės and Krume yesterday to areas in the south of the country. DART reports that many refugees, particularly those who have tractors, are reluctant to leave the north.
• UNICEF continues its vaccination program in Kukės. WHO reports that 19,500 children were vaccinated for measles, and 6,000 were vaccinated for polio.
• Security in northern Albania is a continuing concern. The DART reports that armed gangs of Albanian nationals have robbed refugees and stolen relief supplies warehoused in the north.
• Two of three rubhalls have been erected in Kukės, with a third to be completed today. This increased storage capacity will enable WFP to increase food dispatches.
• The United Arab Emirates' military will construct a new airport in Kukės within the next ten days. The airport will be able to receive 150 tons of humanitarian supplies per day.
• The NGO Humanitarian Information Center was formally established in Tirana on April 26 as a means for gathering and disseminating information. The center is expected to improve coordination among NGOs, UNHCR, and the GOA, and will produce a daily situation report and receive and process NGO requests for assistance in transporting relief items.
• No new refugees are being placed in the Shkodėr Tobacco Factory, and UNHCR is in the process of moving refugees out of the factory to camps. 6,000 refugees are sheltered in the factory.
• Fier has been identified as the U.S. campsite to accommodate 20,000 refugees. Contractors are ready to begin construction tomorrow and project that the camp will be ready to receive refugees in approximately 10 days. The first shipment of a 2,000 tent order is scheduled to arrive today with the remainder in place by May 1.
• WFP reports that 498 MTs of mixed commodities have been positioned to Shkodėr to cover a potential influx of refugees.
• WFP reports that 170 MTs of wheatflour arrived for the Red Cross April 26. An additional 10,000 MTs of Red Cross food aid is expected to arrive within the next few days. Under the WFP/UNHCR/Red Cross agreement, the Red Cross is responsible for feeding host families and refugees in host families throughout Albania.

Macedonia

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 142,650 refugees currently in Macedonia. 5,000 refugees entered Macedonia on April 27; 4,000 via Blace and 1,000 via Lojane. As of noon on April 28, an additional 3,000 refugees had arrived at Blace on ten buses and a nine-car train. They are waiting in no man's land or on the Serbian side of the border.
• The 4,000 refugees who came into Macedonia in the last 24 hours at Blace were received in the Blace Reception Center. Of the 4,000, 100 were eventually processed and moved to Bojane, and 900 were moved to Senokos, leaving 3,000 at the Blace Reception Center as of the morning of April 28.
• Of the refugees who arrived via the Lojane border crossing, 600 were placed into host families, and the other 400 were taken to Neprosteno and Stankovac II.
• A total of 62,700 refugees are now in camps, which are now severely overcrowded.
• Under the humanitarian evacuation plan, 1,600 refugees will be evacuated today, and it is anticipated that this level of evacuations will be maintained for the next several days. UNHCR has started evacuating some people from host families; to date 280 have been evacuated from host families in Skopje.
• On April 24, UNHCR revised its stockpile and pipeline requirements/projections for Macedonia. Based upon a new contingency figure of 150,000 beneficiaries, UNHCR's requirement in tents, blankets, sleeping bags, jerry cans, sanitary napkins, and soap have tripled. UNHCR does not have enough commodities in the pipeline currently to meet these needs.
• UNHCR, OFDA, Swiss Disaster Relief, Medecins Sans Frontiers-Holland, the Governments of Greece, Russia, Great Britain, U.S., Kuwait, and Italy have coordinated information on current stocks and pipeline resources. The DART is encouraging all its implementing partners as well as other members of the international relief community to provide pipeline information, which will enable UNHCR and other donors to plan and implement a more effective and efficient response.
• A UNHCR security officer will arrive later this week to assess security issues in the refugee camps, and develop a security plan for the camps. Macedonian security forces continue to perform both internal and perimeter policing duties at the camps.
• UNHCR is augmenting its expatriate staff in order to ensure that a field officer is stationed at each camp. UNHCR does not currently have a 24-hour presence in the refugee camps but has been requested by the NGOs to provide one protection officer for each camp.
• Several NGOs responsible for camp management have started to organize camp leaders and create conflict resolution mechanisms within the refugee community.
• UNHCR announced that to better address the needs of privately accommodated refugees and their host families, it intends to establish a new coordinator position supported by two field officers. This new unit should become operational between April 30 and May 7.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has seconded a water sanitation engineer to UNHCR to assist it in developing plans for management of waste from the refugee camps.
• On April 26, the Macedonian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs called upon the international community to propose sustainable options for handling sewage created by the refugee camps in Macedonia, which presently is either being disposed of at the sites or transported to the state's only sewage treatment facility at Ohrid. WHO and the German Embassy stated that their technical experts would study the matter and offer recommendations later this week.

Macedonia Camp Information

• Montenegro currently hosts 63,300 displaced Kosovar Albanians, according to UNHCR.
• The GOM has announced its new procedures for clearance of food for the humanitarian agencies working in Montenegro. Analysis and custom clearance of shipments destined for use in Montenegro may now be completed in Montenegro (no Belgrade involvement).
• WFP, CRS and MCI report that with the exception of a small quantity of beans, all of their previously uncleared stocks in Bar have now been cleared.
• A WFP distribution of 564 MTs of mixed commodities for April to registered refugees in Montenegro will be completed today. Distribution of bread to new arrivals is continuing in Tuzi, Konik, Plav, Rozaje, and Ulcinj.

** Some refugees were moved to third countries by the GOM w/o UNHCR involvement: 10,000 to Albania, 5,500 to Greece, 1,980 to Turkey, 88 to Croatia.

Commodities

• The most recent shipment of USAID/OFDA-provided commodities began arriving in Macedonia on April 26, including 15,200 five-gallon water jugs, 15 3,000-gallon water bladders, 15,092 hygiene kits, and 800 rolls of plastic sheeting, 200 rolls of which were delivered directly to CARE for use at the Stankovac II transit camp.

Financial Support

• To date the USG has provided over $183 million in response to the Kosovo crisis, beginning in March 1998.

  USAID/BHR	$77,329,623
  State/PRM	$58,648,600
  DOD	$47,949,000
  TOTAL	$183,927,223

Background:

• In late February 1998, following an unprecedented series of clashes in Kosovo between Serbian police forces and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Serbian police raided villages in Kosovo's Drenica region, a KLA stronghold. The police reportedly burned homes and killed dozens of ethnic Albanians in these raids. Thousands of ethnic Albanians in Pristina protested Serb police actions, and were subsequently attacked by the police with tear gas, water cannons, and clubs.
• As a result of the fighting, thousands of Kosovar Albanians were displaced from their homes, many taking refuge with host families, while a smaller proportion (several thousand) took to the hills and forests.

Public Donation Information:

• In the interest of effective coordination of such public response, we encourage concerned citizens to provide monetary donations to appropriate organizations. USAID encourages the public to contact directly those private voluntary organizations (PVOs) currently working in the region to provide monetary donations. A list of those PVOs may be obtained from the USAID website at http://www.info.usaid.gov/. The list is composed of PVOs that are registered with USAID and/or listed by InterAction, a coalition of voluntary humanitarian and development organizations that work overseas; InterAction can be contacted at 1-818-502-4288, or via the Internet at http://www.interaction.org/. Those interested in providing specific technical relief services or commodities should contact Volunteers in Technical Assistance's (VITA) Disaster Information Center for information and guidelines (703) 276-1914.
• For more information, please contact the public donations hotline at 1-800-USAID-RELIEF, which is staffed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Past USAID/OFDA Factsheets can be obtained from the USAID web site at the following URL: http://www.info.usaid.gov/ofda/situation.html.