The policeman then fired several shots at the trafficker, who sped away into the dawn. Still, however harrowing their journey, the Adzovics should consider themselves lucky. Just two weeks ago, six Kosovars following the same route drowned when their dinghy crashed into rocks on the Albanian shore. Such accidents will likely become even more frequent as more and more Kosovar Albanians attempt to sneak into Italy. Already, Italian authorities have caught more than 3,000 migrants along the stretch of coast on Italy's heel between Bari and Otranto.
Italian police say they have driven another couple thousand back to the Albanian coast.
M ANY OF THE refugees are trying to join relatives who live in Western European countries or the United States. The Adzovic family, for example, went directly to the U.S. Embassy in Rome to seek refuge with Medina's mother in America. But the embassy rejected that request. Medina was surprised. After all, she had lived in New York for five years, and her oldest daughter, who was born there, is a U.S. citizen.