Death in the Adriatic Sea
Roma woman, pulled out of the sea by coast guards near Bari on 19.8.1999 Photo: AP
Rescued Roma children in the camp "Bari-Palese", Italy, August 1999
Photo: Dario Azzelini
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Death in the Adriatic Sea
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| Constantly afraid of being murdered by UCK (KLA) bands, Roma families ran for their lives, often fleeing through the woods at night, trying to reach the border of Montenegro up until June 1999. Thousands hoped to find shelter in the crowed camps. But even there they were not safe because southern Montenegro also has its fanatic Albanians. The situation in the camps was a catastrophe. Many gave their last money or jewellery to pay to cross the Adriatic Sea in order to escape to relatives in Western Europe. Unscrupulous smugglers exploited the situation by packing hundreds of people onto boats that were not the least seaworthy (some of them had previously served as floating restaurants). Even in heavy seas, barges and rubber boats were put to sea at night overloaded with up to four times as many desperate people as they could safely carry. The mafiosi followed in speedboats, ready to bring the "captains" on board and escape as soon as the boats capsized or were discovered by Italian coast guards. On 25 August 1999, |
Roma woman, pulled out of the sea by coast guards near Bari on 19.8.1999 Photo: AP |
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| 33 bodies were washed up on the coast of Montenegro. Authorities identified them as Roma. They had been among 104 people on a boat that sank some 40 km from the coast. Nobody survived. Another boat that shipwrecked took the life of 16 out of 18 members of family A. Among them were 9 children. Several hundred Roma found their death in the Adriatic Sea. In July and August 1999, dozens of crowded and damaged boats were seized by the Italian coast guard, often at the last minute. |
Rescued Roma children in the camp "Bari-Palese", Italy, August 1999 Photo: Dario Azzelini |
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