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<h1>Albania Briefing:</h1>
<h2>Albania - The Refugee Crisis</h2>
<p class="small">11 May 1999</p>
<br>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
The influx of over 400,000 Kosovar refugees into Albania, combined with increasing border clashes with Yugoslav forces, has placed a huge burden on the Albanian authorities to move refugees away from vulnerable camps close to the Yugoslav border. The situation in the north-eastern town of Kukes, which hosts the majority of new arrivals from Kosovo, is worsening by the day as a never-ending flow of people enters the town. 16,000 refugees arrived in Kukes over the weekend 8-9 May 1999. The 100,000 refugees in Kukes are very exposed as the town, which is now being described as a "war zone", is just 15 kilometres from the Yugoslav border - well within reach of Serb artillery and mortar fire. The Tirana authorities are determined to reduce the number of refugees in the Kukes district by transporting them to camps further south in the country. The evacuation, however, is being done in a very chaotic and haphazard manner. Lack of adequate planning means that there are not enough vehicles to transport refugees and many, having already suffered traumatic separation from family members during their flight from Kosovo, now face the prospect of being separated again as the authorities try to move them south as quickly as possible.
<p>
Apart from concerns for the safety of refugees currently being housed close to the border the Albanian authorities have other motives for wanting to move the refugees southwards. Above all, Tirana does not want large numbers of Kosovo Albanians near the border to be a provocation to the Serbs, who claim the camps are providing a support base for the recruiting and training of KLA guerrillas as justification for their attacks on Albanian territory. In addition, the authorities want to clear the camps to make room for the possible arrival of thousands of other refugees if and when they arrive.
<p>
With the imminent arrival of an estimated 60-70,000 refugees from overcrowded camps in Macedonia, new camps are to be built deep inside Albania away from the vunerable northern border. Food, vehicles and construction supplies at existing reception centres for refugees, who may eventually number half a million, are urgently needed. In less than two months the population of Albania has increased by nearly 17 per cent. There is concern therefore about what socio-economic impact the long-term presence of so many Kosovars will have on Albanian society. The sustainabilty factor needs to be addressed - What is the optimum number of Kosovo refugees that Albania can absorb without causing further destabilisation of the country?
<p>
<h2>The reluctance of the refugees to leave Kukes</h2>
The number of refugees leaving Kukes for other districts has fallen greatly since the last week of April 1999. There are two principal reasons for this: a lack of adequate transport to take people to different regions; and the acute reluctance of the refugees to move away from the Kukes camps to other camps further away from the Yugoslav border. Persuading the refugees to leave Kukes is proving difficult for both the UNHCR and the Albanian authorities.
<p>
This insistence to remain in Kukes is influenced by several factors. First, many of those remaining are families who still have relatives missing in the aftermath of their flight from Kosovo and are remaining in Kukes in the hope of being reunited. Secondly, there is a lack of information about where the refugees will be taken and what living conditions are like in other camps. Thirdly, there is a degree of scepticism about the type of reception the Kosovars will receive from local Albanians should they move to southern districts. Indeed, many refugees show no reluctance to go to Tirana or Durres but are wary about being asked to go elsewhere.
<p> The concern of some Kosovars about settling in southern areas of Albania stems
from the stories that abound concerning the violent uprising of 1997,
which emanated from the south of Albania. Many Kosovars believe the 1997
uprising was directed against the government of Sali Berisha, in part,
because his administration was identified as northern Gheg nationalist,
as opposed to southern Tosk Socialist. Since Kosovars are themselves Ghegs,
many believe they will not be welcome in southern Tosk areas of Albania.<a href="/#1" target="notes"><sup>1</sup></a>
<p> In Kukes it is the men who appear the most reluctant to move south,
not only because they are uncertain of their reception elsewhere, but
also because they want to return to Kosovo as soon as possible and believe
that their disbursement will delay their return<a href="/#2" target="notes"><sup>2</sup></a>
. The women on the other hand show a greater willingness to relocate away
from the overcrowded and wholly unsanitary Kukes camps mainly because
they are concerned about the health of their children. Also because the
women do all the domestic chores such as washing, cleaning, cooking and
child care, they are consequently curious to know what conditions are
like elsewhere in the hope that they may hear of somewhere better than
Kukes.
<p>
One aid official, who wished to remain anonymous, described his impatience with some of the Kosovar men in Kukes saying that they spend their days "cussing and discussing", whilst their womenfolk try desperately to maintain a semblance of domestic routine amidst appalling conditions. During a visit to Kukes by an ICG analyst, an Albanian journalist from Tirana became so angry at the Kosovar men for refusing to discuss conditions in camps in southern Albania, that he shouted at the men to go back and fight in Kosovo and let the women and children move away from the filth, damp and squalor of Kukes.
<p>
<h2>Border tensions</h2>
To compound the problem of Kosovar refugees, the recent increase in the number
and frequency of cross border clashes has caused many local Albanian families
living near the Yugoslav border to leave their homes. Serb artillery has
recently widened the conflict by shelling Albanian villages near Bajram
Curri, killing three people and forcing hundreds to flee. Those who remain
gather for safety at night in abandoned hillside tunnels and mine shafts<a href="/#3" target="notes"><sup>3</sup></a>
. Around 6,000 inhabitants of border villages in the Kukes and Tropoja districts
have been evacuated from their homes since the end of April, with only the
men staying behind to protect livestock and property.
<p>
For the first time, on 22 April, Serb forces used radioactive shells in fighting with KLA troops close to the border with Albania. For almost a year similar incidents have taken place. Now, however, it appears that civilians are being targeted by the firing of artillery shells carrying radioactive mines into Albanian territory. The likelihood of a further use of such weapons is anticipated to increase now that Serb forces are finding it difficult to return to their previous positions along the Kosovo-Albanian border after severe fighting with the KLA. The Serb attacks are aimed at destroying KLA training camps in the area, as well as causing general instability in the border districts.
<p>
<h2>Crime poses another threat</h2>
Another reason to move the refugees from the northern border districts is to protect
them and the aid agencies from the violent local gangs that prey on any
strangers, Albanian or foreign, that are deemed not to have adequate armed
protection. The arrival of the Kosovars has provided rich pickings for local
Albanian criminal elements. In the northern border area, local gangsters
rob the refugees with impunity, whilst illegal immigrant traffickers in
the coastal town of Vlore are doubling the number of trips across the Adriatic
with boats crammed full of Kosovars hoping to join relatives in Western
Europe. Some refugees complain of being victimised by local Albanian gangsters,
who have stolen their cars and tractors and sold them back at exorbitant
prices. This is especially so in the Tropoja district where international
border monitors, foreign journalists and Kosovar refugees have been robbed
at gunpoint of money, equipment and vehicles. At the end of April, a British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) crew was stopped by two masked men who fired
over their car and then stole their cameras and money. Even NATO officers
dispatched to survey the area for possible troop deployment have had to
be escorted by lorryloads of Albanian soldiers<a href="/#4" target="notes"><sup>4</sup></a>
.
<p>
Local criminals have been quick to exploit the arrival not only of refugees and foreign media crews, but also of the dozens of international relief agencies that have descended on the bleak northern towns of Kukes and the notoriously lawless Bajram Curri. Dozens of truckloads of international aid are disappearing daily en route between the port of Durres and Tirana into the hands of the local mafia and then onto the black market. In mid-April $300,000 worth of antibiotics disappeared from the port of Durres. The constant movement of refugees into the central and southern districts of Albania, together with the lack of proper registration of refugees scattered throughout the country, makes it relatively easy to divert aid supplies. Aid representatives estimate that only four out of every ten relief consignments were actually being distributed to the refugees.
<p>
The Albanian authorities have set up an emergency committee to coordinate the arrival and distribution of aid, but the weakness and sometimes complete absence of any effective Albanian administration in many areas, combined with problems of division of responsibility between various international relief agencies, have severely limited the committee's effectiveness. In many northern districts the local authorities and the local mafia are one and the same. The high level of crime in Bajram Curri has lead some relief organisations to pull out of the area. A special refugee police force of 1,600 has been established, in part, to maintain public order in the camps but also to protect the refugees and to accompany the relief lorries. Due to the enormity of the refugee crisis, however, this force is wholly inadequate to protect all but a few districts and needs to be heavily reinforced.
<p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Regardless of whether the NATO bombing of Serbia continues or peace negotiations are resumed, it is unlikely that any Kosovo refugees will be able to return to Kosovo before winter. A number of issues have therefore to be addressed:
<p>
<ul>
<li>The refugees have to be evacuated entirely from northern border regions, keeping one camp open in Kukes solely as a reception centre for new arrivals, and for those refugees who have Albanian relatives from the Kukes area.
<p>
<li>Vehicles and construction supplies at reception centres for future refugees, who may eventually number half a million, are urgently needed.
<p>
<li>Food supplies to Albanians who are sheltering refugees must be organised
and urgently delivered. According to the Chairman of Kukes District
Council, Shefqet Bruka, 50 percent of the food supplies to refugees
is provided by the Albanian authorities and the 30 different humanitarian
organisations operating in the Kukes camps - the rest has been met by
local families<a href="/#5" target="notes"><sup>5</sup></a>.
Local families, who have taken in hundreds of refugees, are finding
it almost impossible to continue feeding their Kosovar "guests" as well
as their own families. This is a difficult time of year. Unlike in September
or October, there is little food to harvest and many peasants are just
planting crops. Local Albanians did not expect to have to feed so many
people for such a long time and most families have now exhausted their
winter food supplies.
<p>
<li>Aid agencies must liaise with the Albanian government to ensure relief
supplies are effectively distributed. There appears little willingness
to coordinate with the government, some members of which believe many
NGOs have a real fear of transparencies because it will expose their
organisation's inefficiencies.<a href="/#6" target="notes"><sup>6</sup></a>
Kukes District Council Chairman, Shefqet Bruka, praised the work of
the UNHCR but criticised other international organisations for not coordinating
their activities between either themselves or the Tirana authorities
thereby hampering relief work.<a href="/#7" target="notes"><sup>7</sup></a>
<p>
<li>Finally, a major issue that must be addressed is the allocation of suitable sites for the construction of sizeable refugee camps. The Albanian government keeps offering sites for refugee camps which are state owned and invariably turn out to be flooded or otherwise totally unsuitable. Any land that is half decent is privately owned. What is urgently needed is an emergency law which allows the government to expropriate land on a temporary basis. The refugee crisis is a national emergency for Albania, it should be the government's legal duty to provide land for the settlement of refugees. The government should set a flat compensation rate for different types of vacant land and if the owner refuses to accept the government's compensation figure, the land should be automatically requisitioned by the government.
</ul>
<p>
<h2>Update on Kosovo refugee movements</h2>
<b>UNHCR =</b> 875,000 refugees have left Kosovo since March 1998, 720,000 of whom have left Kosovo since the start of the NATO bombing on 24 March this year.
<p>
The UN refugee agency UNHCR estimates that around 677,000 ethnic Albanian refugees have crowded into countries neighbouring Kosovo (including the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro). With more than 100,000 Kosovars relocated outside the Balkan region, the total number of refugees that have left Kosovo since the start of the conflict in March 1998 exceeds 800,000, according to UNHCR estimates. The latest figures (as of 7 May) for refugees within the Balkan region are:
<p>
<b>ALBANIA:</b> 423,000
<p>
<b>MACEDONIA:</b> 241,000
<p>
<b>MONTENEGRO:</b> 63,000
<p>
<b>SERBIA:</b> Official figures from Belgrade indicate that 50,000 Kosovar refugees inside Serbia proper, but the figure is unconfirmed by the UNHCR.
<p>
<b>BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA:</b> 15,000 refugees from Kosovo. The UNHCR has also counted 20,000 Muslims from Sandjak and 10,500 Serbian refugees in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
<p>
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