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MESSAGE BOARD: Rebuilding Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

August 1, 1999
Web posted at: 12:38 a.m. EDT (0438 GMT)

BARI, Italy -- A boatload of people who arrived in Italy from Yugoslavia were shuffled into reception centers on Sunday, and their fate remained unknown.

Authorities said 489 of the 1,010 aboard the old tugboat were children. The Gypsies -- called Roma -- are considered illegal immigrants, not refugees, in Italy.

The boat left the coast of Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation, on Friday, arriving in Southern Italy on Saturday. Many aboard said they were fleeing revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians.

"The Albanians are hunting us," one man, identified only as Ekrep, was quoted as telling Italy's ANSA news agency. "We have nothing, we have no homes, we have nothing to eat, and above all, we're afraid. Afraid of being killed."

The boatload was the biggest single arrival in a weeks-long influx of Roma from Yugoslavia, arriving under Italian military escort.

As they docked at the southern port of Bari, the would-be refugees burst into applause.

Thousands of Roma have landed illegally in Itay since the war in Kosovo ended.

Italy declared in mid-July it would treat the Roma as illegal immigrants rather than refugees, and return them immediately.

But most have been taken to reception centers, which for illegal immigrants in Italy are often just first stops en route to points elsewhere in Europe.

Authorities took into custody two men from Romania suspected of being immigrant traffickers.

The remaining passengers were taken for medical examination and for identification and then on to the reception centers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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