ROME - Italy sent home 180 Albanians, classified as undesirables", just hours after they arrived on a boat packed with more than 1,000 refugees at the southern port of Bari, coastguards said yesterday. A port official said the ageing tanker was carrying 1,229 Albanians, including many women and children, when it docked on Sunday. Most were sent to refugee centres around the country but some were immediately repatriated.
The Irini was the latest in a string of decrepit Albanian boats which have brought more than 13,000 people to Italy since the collapse of high risk savings funds swept the Balkan country into anarchy earlier this year.
