Albanians Ignore Threats as 7,000 Swarm Into Italy

BRINDISI, Italy â€”  Three ships from Albania docked here Thursday in defiance of port authorities, and nearly 7,000 Albanian refugees chaotically scrambled ashore in hope of a better life, port officials said.

In Albania, about 5,000 more people hoping to join the exodus jammed the main port of Durres, ignoring warning shots fired by soldiers and announcements that Rome would reject them.

The Italian government announced Thursday that it would send any new arrivals home. But Deputy Prime Minister Claudio Martelli said officials would examine the immigration cases of the refugees already in Italian ports or in its territorial waters.

The latest arrivals brought to more than 11,000 the number of Albanians who have flooded Italian ports in the past two weeks. Albania clamped military control on Durres and two other ports to halt the exodus and stepped up security in the capital of Tirana after at least one person was killed in clashes with police.

Gramoz Pashko, a leader of the opposition Democratic Party, said about 30,000 people were still waiting in Durres for ships to take them to Italy, but that all ships had left port.

Italy, overwhelmed by the thousands of Albanians flooding its eastern ports, asked Tirana to stop the flow, and pledged more aid to Europe’s poorest nation.

The Albanians who stormed ashore Thursday said they had not eaten for three days, and city authorities and Red Cross officials distributed food. Scores were taken to the main city hospital, but most were released after treatment for minor injuries.

The refugees said they fled to Italy because they feared civil war in Albania, where the hard-line Communist government has been facing disruptions and rioting and an economy falling into ruin, with food shortages, unemployment and labor unrest.

Albania is Europe’s last hard-line Communist holdout, and the refugees have little faith that elections set for March 31 will ease financial woes and political unrest.