AT LEAST four people, including two children, drowned when a boat carrying Albanian refugees capsized in the Adriatic yesterday, off the southern Italian port of Brindisi.
Port officials said 34 people had been rescued but the rescue operation by eight naval ships and a helicopter was made difficult by poor visibility and heavy seas.
The Albanian naval tug-boat wash carrying 45 refugees, according to an Italian military source, and around 100, according to those who were picked up.
The accident was the first in the Adriatic since the exodus that has taken about 13,000 Albanian refugees to Italy since March 13th.
In Rome yesterday the UN refugee agency expressed concern that Italy's use of its navy to halt the exodus to its shores might stop genuine refugees from fleeing, chaos-hit Albania.
The Rome office of the Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that it appreciated the "humanitarian approach that the Italian government has taken so far" to the Albanian crisis.
But it voiced concern about an Italian decision last Monday to turn away boats bringing Albanians to its ports.