Ethnic Albanian refugees cross the border into Albania RELATED VIDEO CNN's Tom Mintier saw the first group of Kosovo refugees leave for the U.S. Wednesday (May 5) Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Kosovo, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K IMAGE GALLERY Latest from Kosovo The Kosovo refugees The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO: U.S.: Serbs destroying bodies of Kosovo victims U.S. helicopter crew killed in crash in Albania Clinton rallies troops, ponders prisoner release  THE DELUGE OF REFUGEES: Where are they going?  CNN WORLD REPORT CONFERENCE: Follow CNN's 1999 World Report Conference this week in Atlanta and New York  MESSAGE BOARD: Crisis in Kosovo  MAPS: NATO officials describe the air campaign  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: NATO at 50 Strike on Yugoslavia

May 5, 1999
Web posted at: 11:04 a.m. EDT (1504 GMT)

KUKES, Albania (CNN) -- Albanian government officials were meeting Wednesday with aid officials to work out a plan to move Kosovo refugees out of camps near Kukes to locations farther south, away from the border.

CNN's Nic Robertson reported that officials said the refugee camps in and around Kukes -- now holding 100,000 people -- were always meant to be transitory camps. Another 7,000 people crossed into Albania Tuesday.

Ray Wilkinson, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said that one of the options under consideration was to close the camps.

"A decision hasn't been made but it is now under active discussion at the highest levels of government and UNHCR and other interested parties," Wilkinson said.

UNHCR circulated a flier Wednesday aimed at encouraging the refugees to move on, telling them that conditions in camps deeper into Albania were better, and that conditions in Kukes would only worsen.

With the Kukes camps only 14 kilometers (eight miles) from the border with Yugoslavia, many ethnic Albanian refugees want to stay to wait for lost relatives or to be closer if it becomes safe to return home.

But the close proximity of the camps to the Yugoslav border is another worry for aid officials -- should the Serbs launch a shelling attack on the camp, the crowded conditions could mean high casualties.

"Unfortunately we are too close to the border," said Drew Gilmour, the administrator of Italian camp No. 2. "We don't know what the other side are going to do."

Meanwhile, a group of 400 refugees left Macedonia Wednesday, bound for the United States. Eventually, 20,000 refugees will seek shelter in America.

The decision to come to the United States was not an easy one for most of the ethnic Albanians who opted to make the long journey.

"If I could be sure somehow that any kind of epidemic could not be spread here, I would like to stay near Kosovo .. because America is too far," said one woman. "But we are proud to go there because they have always supported us."

The refugees were to arrive at Fort Dix in New Jersey late Wednesday, where first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton planned to be on hand to greet them.

Most of the 20,000 refugees who are to come to the United States will be staying with family members. The refugees that were to arrive Wednesday have no family members, but were deemed at special risk by aid workers.

U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia Chris Hill said the United States hopes to "get these people back in their homes ... as soon as possible."

"But in the meantime, it's very important that we move people to some other countries," he said. "Macedonia is quite overloaded. It cannot take more refugees."

On Tuesday, about 250 ethnic Albanians flew to refuge in Canada, and another group was expected to leave Macedonia later Wednesday. Canada has agreed to take 30,000 ethnic Albanians.

Correspondent Nic Robertson contributed to this report.