The first team of Irish relief workers has arrived in Montenegro to assess the refugee crisis. They were invited in by the Montenegrin government.
The Refugee Trust Ireland team leader, Mr Vincent O'Reilly, and the agency's Sarajevo-based field officer, Mr Killian Forde, crossed the border from Bosnia into Yugoslavia at 6 a.m. yesterday. They plan to stay a week to assess the situation.
Mr O'Reilly is expected back in Dublin next Thursday. Speaking to The Irish Times last night, Mr Forde said that food and blankets were both urgently needed. He said that 32,000 ethnic Albanians had crossed the border from Kosovo into Montenegro in the past week, bringing the total number of refugees who have arrived there since August to over 60,000.
He said that the invitation came to Refugee Trust because, as an Irish-based organisation, it was one of the very few aid agencies that was not viewed in Yugoslavia as NATO-affiliated. He said that movement and communication within Montenegro were difficult and the political situation was very tense.
Because Montenegro is still part of Yugoslavia, many of the refugees are unwilling to remain. "There is no security, no shelter and no food" for many of them, he said.