Kosovo Crisis Update. More are expected today. The estimated total numbers of refugees in the region are 367,200 in Albania and 142,650 in the FYR of Macedonia. More than 63,000 displaced Kosovars remain in Montenegro. With the arrival of over 5,000 refugees yesterday, the situation in the refugee camps in the FYR of Macedonia has reached breaking point.
Camps are overcrowded and tensions are on the rise.
The health and sanitation situation is quickly deteriorating, leading to fears of the outbreak of epidemics in the camps with the onset of warmer weather. The dramatic situation in the camps in the FYR of Macedonia makes it essential that European countries speed up the evacuation of refugees in line with the large number of places which have been offered, but not yet filled. Of the new arrivals on Tuesday, around 4,000 reached the Blace border crossing on buses from Urosevac and on a train from Kosovo Polje and Lipljan. Several refugees arrived with shrapnel wounds and a number of mothers were so traumatized and weak that they could no longer breastfeed their infants. Refugees who had arrived on Monday and had been temporarily housed at the Blace transit center were moved to the Stenkovec camps during the day in order to provide space for the new arrivals.