Minister to seek admittance of 1,000 refugees

THE Government has announced £2m in aid for refugees fleeing the Kosovo province of Yugoslavia. The money is to be divided between Irish aid agencies already working with refugees in Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro.

The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, is also to seek cabinet approval to admit 1,000 refugees to the Republic, he told The Irish Times last night.

The Minister said that he was "anxious to be as generous as possible in view of the appalling humanitarian crisis" which exists in the Balkans. The Minister added that the figure of 1,000 should be seen in the light of the announcement by the United States that 20,000 refugees would be accepted there and a similar announcement from Britain that 10,000 would be accepted.

The Republic has, in the recent past, accepted refugees from Bosnia and Vietnam. Some 500 of the most recent, the Bosnians who came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, have remained here, with the Minister periodically allowing family members to join them. The exact numbers of refugee families to be admitted from Kosovo is to be discussed by European ministers for justice and home affairs who will meet in Luxembourg on Wednesday.

In a two-pronged approach, Mr O'Donoghue will meet other justice and home affairs ministers to agree an action plan to deal with the flood of refugees, while the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, is expected to meet foreign ministers to agree an aid pack- age for ethnic Albanians remaining in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Mr Andrews and the Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, are expected to meet the Irish agencies this week to agree the best disbursement of funds.

Mr John O'Shea of Goal has called for the Government and the wider international community to "get its act together" in co-ordinating its efforts to wards the crisis. "The Irish Government's approach is usually to look to the UN first and it recently gave the UNHCR £400,000. Unfortunately the UN is incompetent. The Irish Government and the wider in- ternational community should look to the agencies on the ground".

Mr David Begg of Concern said that agency would be continuing its efforts in providing "food, sanitation and water". However Mr Begg appeared to echo at least some of Mr O'Shea's criticisms saying that as yet "nobody has a handle of the full scale of the problem".

Mr Begg said Concern has sent four aid workers to Tirana, in Albania. "These are our rapid response unit, and they will organise the delivery of our aid. The biggest problem is logistical bottlenecks. This is the first time we have been involved in a European emergency and wouldn't normally be involved were it not for the scale of the crisis."

Ms Caroline Lynch of Trocaire told The Irish Times that Trocaire is involved with its partner agencies, The Catholic Relief Society and Caritas in Macedonia and northern Albania respectively.