WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE
Albanian refugees arriving at the italian port city of Bari, August 8, 1991 PHOTO/Vittorio Arcieri
This week in 1991 saw the deportation of nearly 18,000 Albanian refugees from Italy. The event constituted one of the most massive forced expulsions of refugees seen in Europe since the fascist atrocities of the 1930s.
All but a few hundred of the refugees were loaded onto ferries and Italian air force planes and shipped back across the Adriatic Sea less than a week after having arrived aboard a commandeered freighter on August 8, 1991. Their deportation followed days of extreme brutality at the hands of Italian security forces and inhuman conditions in the makeshift concentration camps set up by the authorities.
When the ship reached the Italian coastal city of Bari, many of the refugees attempted to evade security forces by jumping overboard and swimming to shore. All of them were rounded up and herded into a soccer stadium or held on the docks.
At least 3,000 Albanians were held under cramped conditions on the Bari docks for nearly four days with little food, no restrooms, beds or shelter. By the end of the ordeal, many lay on the concrete dock, overcome by the sun and faint from lack of food and water.
Anger over conditions erupted into a bitter clash on Sunday, August 11, when dozens of youths hurled chunks of concrete at police distributing bread and water. The Italian security forces responded to this apparent protest over the meager rations with volleys of teargas canisters and gunfire. A firefighting boat was brought alongside the docks to turn its high-pressure hoses on the Albanians.
At the stadium concentration camp, the refugees, most of them unemployed young men, repeatedly attempted to break out, only to be met by baton charges and gunfire. At least three Albanians were taken to Italian hospitals after being shot by troops.
The refugees were given the absolute minimum amount of bread and water, while being kept without shelter or toilets under the sun in the blistering heat of the Italian summer.
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