FED: Australia should be doing more Albanian community

AAP General News (Australia)
04-07-1999
FED: Australia should be doing more Albanian community

By Greg Rule

MELBOURNE, April 7 AAP - Australia's Albanian community believes the intake of 4,000 of
their countrymen is too low, that housing them in military camps is undesirable and that their
three-month stay is too short.

After meeting in Melbourne today with Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, a spokesman for
Albanians in Australia, Eric Lloga (Lloga) said his community was extremely grateful for the
government's decision to provide asylum to the refugees.

But he believed a desirable intake would be between 20,000 and 30,000 Albanians from
Kosovo.

Prime Minister John Howard announced yesterday that Australia would accept 4,000 temporary
refugees from Kosovo.

Mr Lloga told reporters he was grateful that "at least 4,000 people get to survive the
calamity of having to die in a muddy ditch" on the Kosovo border.

Mr Ruddock earlier told reporters that military facilities were being considered to house
the Albanians, possibly some in remote locations.

But Mr Lloga said the minister "appreciated" his group's view that remote centres should
not be used.

"The Kosovars have already had too much of that kind of experience," he said.

"Indeed, Kosovo as a whole for the last decade has been considered to be the biggest
concentration camp in Europe and, given their recent experience and trauma, certainly being in
remote locations is not desirable for the Kosovars."

He said Albanians in Australia would be pleased to have the refugees billeted in their
homes.

"Our community is extremely opposed to military accommodation and enclosed accommodation,"
he said.

Mr Ruddock earlier said the figure of 4,000 was appropriate compared to the intake agreed
to by other nations. But he also said the intake might be reviewed.

"I'm not going to say this is a situation that may not be reviewed in the future, but ...
we see our response as being appropriate and measured in the circumstances," he said.

Likewise, Mr Ruddock defended the decision not to allow the Albanians lengthy stays.

"If you are about accommodating people permanently, then what you are saying is that people
will not be able to return to their home, and that would play into the hands of those who
removed these people from their homes in the circumstances to which we are all too familiar,"
he said.

Mr Lloga said he could not see the situation sufficiently improving in Kosovo for the
Albanians to return within three months.

"If, for example, it was possible for people to return to Kosovo with the appropriate
security as NATO has suggested, it seems to us it will take quite some time to get their homes
ready as places for them to actually settle," he said.

Mr Lloga's concerns on housing the refugees in military camps appear to contrast with
comments today by another Australian/Albanian community spokesman, Sadik Binakaj.

Mr Binakaj said in Sydney Albanians fleeing war-torn Kosovo did not care if they were
housed in remote Australian refugee camps and just wanted to be safe.

"I don't want to say anything about these remote places, these people just want to be put
somewhere safe, we are not arguing about where," he said.

AAP gfr/jlw/ms

KEYWORD: KOSOVO RUDDOCK NIGHTLEAD

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