The move continues even as Yugoslav forces have swept across the border and aid workers are trying to persuade refugees to leave Albanian camps near the fighting. A group of 150 refugees from Macedonia arrived early this week at a new camp near the southern Albanian town of Korca. The ethnic Albanians want nothing more than to leave Macedonia and the comfortless refugee camps, but many want to go to western European countries rather than another camp in Albania. Unfortunately, making such arrangements is a painfully slow process for refugees in overtaxed Macedonian camps. Within the dusty, crowded Brazda camp, standing in line is part of the numbing daily routine.
People wait for food, for water and, reluctantly, for the latrine.
But one of the longest lines is the one that forms in front of a tent where the International Catholic Migration Commission offers free telephone calls. Refugees wait to make phone calls in the Brazda refugee camp. Restless and impatient to make contact with family, refugees wait for hours to get inside the tent where they are allowed just one call and three minutes in which to place it. Some are trying to phone Kosovar villages where only one functioning telephone remains and crowds of people as big or bigger than those in the camp may be waiting to receive calls on their end. Other refugees are calling western Europe where they have relatives who they hope will take them in.