Refugees in crowded border camp must to move again RELATED VIDEO: CNN's Tom Mintier reports on the refugee camp revival of a Kosovo Albanian-language newspaper (April 28) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Greece, a neighbor of Albania, has set up a refugee camp in Tirana. CNN's John Psaropoulos takes a tour. (April 28) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the Littleton school shooting, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K  THE DELUGE OF REFUGEES: Where are they going?  ALSO: Children reported killed when NATO bomb missed target Relief workers aim to improve Albanian health care 2,100 activated reservists headed to Europe U.S., Russian diplomats aim to end Yugoslav crisis Red Cross: Captured U.S. soldiers 'satisfactory'

April 28, 1999
Web posted at: 6:16 a.m. EDT (1016 GMT)

KUKES, Albania (CNN) -- Ethnic Albanian refugees seeking shelter from the war raging in neighboring Kosovo are coming under increasing pressure to move out of crowded border camps.

The town of Kukes, 20 kilometers from the frontier with Yugoslavia, faces the toughest conditions with officials saying the community was being overwhelmed.

Few of the 100,000 refugees housed at Kukes have taken up offers by the United Nations to move further south to camps where conditions are better and facilities are more geared to cope with such numbers.

Most of them preferred to remain near the border with Kosovo and the friends and family many have been separated from since fighting began late last month.

CNN correspondent Jane Arraf reported Kosvars continued to flood across the border into Albania Wednesday on the heels of a fresh influx Tuesday.

She said refugees had stories to tell of the men being separated and taken away. One woman told of her husband and father killed before here eyes, Arraf said.

They spoke of thousands more to come who had been hiding from Serb troops, and whose towns had allegedly been emptied.

About 1,700 refugees entered Albania at the Morina border crossing Tuesday night, the largest influx there in a week, aid workers said.

Many of the Kosovo Albanians said they were awakened early Tuesday morning in villages outside Djakovica and told if they did not leave their villages would be burned, U.N. refugee agency spokesman Ray Wilkinson said.

Some refugees said they saw villages on fire behind them as they fled.

The refugee situation in Macedonia, already at a critical stage, was pushed further over the line Tuesday when at least 3,000 Kosovars passed into Macedonian territory.

The flow of refugees, which had slowed to a trickle last week, has been on the rise since Saturday. Some 10,000 Kosovars have crossed into Macedonia since that time, and more are expected, causing international aid workers to sound the alarm about the rising risk of disease in the overcrowded camps.

Macedonia is already housing nearly 140,000 refugees -- 68,000 in six camps, double the camps' capacity -- according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

An old woman cries because she's afraid her family in Kosovo won't be able to find her

"We passed the breaking point last night," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Paula Ghedini. "If we get any more today, we're going to have to give them plastic sheeting and have them camp in between the other tents."

Some 2,800 refugees on Tuesday crossed the border at Blace alone, following 3,500 who entered Macedonia at that point on Monday. Macedonia has given permission to build one more refugee camp, but preparation delays have kept construction at bay.

And if overcrowding weren't enough, days of torrential rains have left the camps awash in mud.

"The potential impact on public health is serious," said Aileen Robertson, an official at the World Health Organization's Copenhagen-based regional office for Europe.

Concerned about the possibility of epidemics, the U.N. Children's Fund began an immunization program at the camps on Monday, aimed at immunizing all children below the age of 5 against such diseases as polio and measles.

And WHO warned that infant formula, made with possibly contaminated drinking water, was likely to be unsafe.

One or two babies are born among the refugees each day, the agency said.

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