Regional: Refugees/Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Kosovo

Albania

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 426,600 refugees in Albania. On May 10, a total of 3,677 refugees crossed the Morini border from Kosovo and 225 entered Albania from Montenegro. According to UNHCR, 120,000 refugees are currently sheltered in camps and collective centers, while approximately 100,000 refugees are accommodated with host families.
• UNHCR headquarters reports that 4,522 refugees moved from the northern Kukės prefecture on May 10. In the last two weeks, more than 1,200 tractors have left Kukės with refugees for other destinations within Albania. Approximately 100,000 refugees remain in the Kukės area.
• UNHCR reports that refugees in Macedonia are unwilling to relocate to Albania because they are concerned that they will be unable to depart Albania for third countries. Only 650 of a planned group of 6,000 refugees voluntarily relocated to Albania from Macedonia between May 6-9.
• The British Government reports that it has identified a large site north of Shkoder, near the border with Montenegro, that can serve as an evacuation and transit center for refugees from Kukės and Montenegro. The site, however, will need preparation to improve drainage.
• The Government of Albania's Emergency Management Group (EMG) reports that the 3,000 refugees staying in Tirana's Sports Palace are reluctant to leave the facility. The refugees are fearful of losing family members should they vacate the Sports Palace. Relief International has begun cleaning up the center's latrines and removing the garbage that has accumulated in the center, and additional water taps have been installed by Relief International.
• A joint UNICEF, World Health Organization, Government of Albania, and NGO vaccination campaign in the Has district of Kukės prefecture was completed on May 10. The campaign was targeted at Kosovar and local Albanian children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years. Measles coverage has been extended to 68% of all children in the targeted age group and polio coverage to 53% of Has district children.
• 209 tents have been erected at Camp Hope in Fier. The additional tents will be providing shelter for approximately 2,500 refugees. The camp's completion is being expedited from June 1 to May 25.

Macedonia

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are currently 238,900 refugees in Macedonia, 59 of whom entered over the last 24 hours from Kosovo. 2,242 refugees were evacuated by air and 139 left over land for Albania. UNHCR reports that 89,100 refugees are living in camps and transit centers and 114,920 refugees are living with host families (registered by the Macedonian Red Cross). UNHCR estimates that 4,900 refugees are located in border communities.
• The camp population in Macedonia has decreased by over 12,000 from its highest point because of the increased pace of the UNHCR/IOM-sponsored humanitarian evacuation program (HEP) and the limited number of new refugees entering the country.
• On May 7, UNHCR released a plan for the transfer of up to 30,000 refugees from the Macedonian border or refugee camps to new or existing camps in the Korcė, Albania area. The humanitarian transfer plan (HTP) involves transporting refugees over a four week period and started on May 10. The roundtrip drive of 250 km would require 2-3 days; UNHCR expects to move 1,000 refugees per day using as many as 60 buses. The plan is divided into four phases: a registration, a loading and preparation, a transport, and a border crossing. UNHCR, in coordination with NATO, has also developed a broader program to transport refugees entering Macedonia directly to camps in Albania. More information will be provided on this when available.
• On May 10, under the HTP, UNHCR transported the first group of refugees from Macedonia to refugee camps in Albania. Two buses containing approximately 100 refugees departed from Stankovac I, Stankovac II, and Cegrane to refugee camps in the Korcė, Albania area. Once they contact their relatives through the help of Albanian social service agencies and international tracing organizations, the refugees will be free to leave the camp and join their families.
• UNICEF, in coordination with the Government of Macedonia's (GOM) Ministry of Health, has completed a comprehensive vaccination program in all of the refugee camps except Cegrane. UNICEF expects the vaccination campaign will be finished in Cegrane o/a May 12. The vaccination program, which started on April 21, immunized children against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, and tuberculosis. UNICEF expects the program to move on to refugee children living in host families. The vaccination campaign was considered crucial to the overall health situation in Macedonia because of the low coverage rates achieved in most Kosovo municipalities.
• UNHCR indicates that is has extremely limited funding for essential program activities due to lack of donor response and an emerging problem of the GOM "billing" for services.

** Some refugees were moved to third countries by the GOM w/o UNHCR/IOM involvement: 10,000 to Albania, 5,500 to Greece, 2,243 to Turkey, and 88 to Croatia.

Montenegro

• UNHCR headquarters estimates that there are 63,900 refugees in Montenegro.

Commodities

• No new information.

Financial Support

• To date the USG has provided over $188 million in response to the Kosovo crisis, beginning in March 1998.

  USAID/BHR	$83,167,327
  State/PRM	$59,779,500
  DOD	$45,281,000
  TOTAL	$188,227,827

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. On May 10, 289 calls were made to the public donation hotline. Since April 6, a total of 47,511 calls have been received by the hotline.
• Past USAID/OFDA Factsheets can be obtained from the USAID web site at the following URL: http://www.info.usaid.gov/ofda/situation.html.