(5 Apr 1999) English/Nat
There was some relief on Sunday for some of the refugees who have spent countless nights in the open.
The Brazda Transit Camp opened near Skopje for the first bus loads of refugees from the border.
Some of the refugees will remain in Brazda, others will be among the first to be airlifted out of the area.
The first busloads of refugees arrived at the Brazda transit camp on Sunday, after spending the week waiting on the Kosovo-Macedonia border.
The camp, set up as a temporary measure, will give refugees the shelter and food that they have so far lacked.
With freezing overnight temperatures and no sanitation, the situation on the border is now being described as a humitarian crisis.
Their desperate plight - and that of tens of thousands of other refugees flooding out of Kosovo - is spurring NATO nations to offer temporary refuge in order to take the pressure off neighbors of the southern Serbian province that are overwhelmed by the refugee influx.
In response to the burgeoning crisis, NATO nations prepared to begin taking in the refugees, while stressing it will only be a temporary measure.
NATO is marshaling planes, food, shelter, medical and other aid for Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, which are dealing with nearly a quarter of a million refugees.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"What you're seeing now is the relocation of refugees from the Blasce border crossing area to a transit camp called Brazda. This has been set up by NATO at the request for urgent assistance from the Macedonian government as well as U-N-H-C-R and what we're looking for now is to try to help get some of the refugees out of the cold open airs and get them under shelter. This is a transit centre, so this is a temporary facility however at least we'll be able to provide food and shelter and somewhere where people will be able to rest for a few days before they move onto their further destinations."
SUPER CAPTION: Paula Ghedini - UNHCR Spokesperson
NATO stressed it remained the alliance's aim for refugees to return to Kosovo - but acknowledged that would not be easy until peace and security are established in the province.
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