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- WORLD, Page 34World NotesITALYNo Refuge For Albanians
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- With calculated harshness, the Italian government resorted to
- drastic measures in dealing with more than 18,000 impoverished
- Albanian refugees in the southern port of Bari. Seeking escape
- from the dismal conditions back home, the Albanians had fought
- their way ashore after crossing the Adriatic on grossly
- overcrowded boats, only to be penned into coal docks and the
- local soccer stadium without adequate food or water. The angry
- men and women then proceeded to wreck the stadium. Later, when
- supplies did arrive, complained a Caritas relief worker, "the
- police threw food at them like in a zoo."
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- After battling security forces for two days and suffering
- from exposure, most of the dispirited Albanians willingly got
- on board more than 50 military and Alitalia flights headed for
- Tirana. Altogether, said Interior Minister Vincenzo Scotti,
- 17,466 had been shipped home by last week. But a few hundred
- holdouts, including army deserters, have been allowed to stay
- while an Italian commission decides whether they qualify for
- political asylum.
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