Tens of thousands of refugees were shifted from Macedonia to Albania yesterday under disputed circumstances, with many remaining unaccounted for. Thousands from a single camp were said to have `vanished'.
Thousands more, still trying to flee Kosovo, became trapped inside the province after Serb forces unexpectedly sealed its borders with neighbouring countries. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said it was gravely concerned for the safety of those unable to leave Kosovo, amid reports of new atrocities committed by troops inside the region.
The UNHCR also accused Macedonia of flagrantly breaching its international humanitarian obligations and aggravating an already escalating crisis by forcing the refugees into other countries. But the details of Macedonian movements of refugees, apparently against their will, remained unclear last night. The emergency refugee camp in Blace, on the Macedonian side of the Kosovan border, had been almost completely emptied of refugees between Tuesday night and yesterday morning, and the fate of many of them remained a mystery.
EU officials warned some airlifts were still likely unless the situation improved.
About 20,000 of the refugees who apparently vanished overnight from the squalid Blace border-camp in Macedonia were later traced to southern Albania, according to the UNHCR. More busloads had been seen heading towards the Greek border and Bulgaria, according to unconfirmed reports.
An estimated 65,000 refugees had been battling to survive in the no-man's-land camp between the Kosovo and Macedonian borders. Yesterday morning the site was deserted save for discarded possessions, mud and piles of rubbish.
Eyewitnesses said the thousands of refugees were herded on to buses in the middle of the night, leaving clothes and other personal belongings. UNHCR officials admitted it was hard to establish exact figures.
Some of the refugees had gone to the Nato camps established in the area, but there was still concern that some were "missing". It was feared that up to 30,000 could have been forced back into Kosovo.
Refugees who had massed on the Kosovo side of the border queuing to get into Macedonia also appeared to have vanished this morning, again prompting fears that they had been pushed deep into the region.
The situation was similar elsewhere. A 35 km tailback of refugees stretching back to the Kosovo town of Prizren had built up at the border with Albania before the frontier was closed.
On Tuesday, Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic had called for the borders to be closed "to prevent Albanians from leaving Kosovo. They have lived there for centuries with Serbs and they must be able to continue to do so," he said.
The Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, had also called on Kosovan Albanians to return to their homes after his ceasefire announcement on Tuesday. Kosovan refugees already in Albania poured scorn on the offer yesterday.
"Milosevic is a liar. He has done this before so many times. We will only go back accompanied by NATO troops," said 25-year-old Refki Avdaj, one of the up to 100,000 Kosovans living in private houses and makeshift refugee camps in Kukes on the Albanian border.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said it was impossible to say what had become of those inside the stricken region, but spokeswoman Lyndall Sachs said they were "desperately worried".
Ms Sachs said: "The full responsibility for this rests with Macedonia. The authorities' actions are deplorable. It's a violation of human rights to push people around like this. If an individual claims asylum, that claim must be heard. You can't push people back or into a third country - it's totally inhumane."
A Macedonian government official insisted the refugees had simply been moved on to transit camps.
The issue of how to share the burden of caring for the biggest wave of refugees in Europe for half a century is also being discussed by the EU's interior ministers, including Mr Straw, the British Home Secretary.
Many states are agreed that the best policy is to keep the refugees in the region, where they will be best placed to return home at the first opportunity.
But the Macedonian authorities' determination not to bear the brunt of the over-spill could force a rethink.