Desperate Albanians rioted Saturday and burned down a Red Cross office as Italy forced thousands of the would-be refugees to return to their impoverished homeland across the Adriatic.
Italian police and soldiers, clearly frightened by the violence, fought back with tear gas, jagged-edged wooden boards and iron rods.In another episode Saturday, hundreds of Albanians at a food distribution point rushed police barricades, lunged at food crates and were driven back by police and soldiers wielding clubs. No serious injuries were reported.
The fighting created a nightmarish situation for Italian authorities, who have accepted more than 20,000 Albanians who came in two previous waves this year to escape their nation's crumbling economy.
But authorities have refused to accept any of the 12,000 who arrived Wednesday, mostly jammed on a single overcrowded ship.
Vice Premier Claudio Martelli said after an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday that the government was committed to the "total and immediate repatriation of this new wave of refugees."
Italian military and civilian planes hired by the government were scheduled to leave for the Albanian capital at least every half-hour during the day, Bari airport officials said.
In addition to the 2,700 to be flown home Saturday, another 1,000 were being sent by ship, the Interior Ministry said. More than 3,000 refugees were also sent home on Friday.
Smaller groups of Albanians were also being repatriated from Brindisi and Catania in Sicily.
From Albania, official Tirana radio quoted an unnamed government spokesman as saying that 5,000 deportees had returned Friday and Saturday, and another 3,500 were expected back on planes and ferryboats.
The refugees, who are mostly young men seeking jobs, have resisted attempts to send them back to a country lacking jobs and even food.
Barefoot, grimy and in some cases wearing only flimsy nylon bathing suits, they said they wanted the affluence they had seen on Italian television, which reaches Albania.