The Red Cross said yesterday it was struggling to supply enough food and medicine to thousands of refugees moving into Albania from Serbia's province of Kosovo.
"The fact that the refugee area is so far away and the road network is so poor increases our costs and makes it very difficult to get supplies up there," Albanian Red Cross (ARC) president Mr Shyqyri Subashi told Reuters. "What we have sent up to now has not been enough."
The ARC has been moving supplies by truck from Tirana, in central Albania, along 140 miles of pot-holed roads to Bajram Curri, the main town in the northern Tropoje area where Kosovo's ethnic Albanian refugees are concentrated.
Albania's infrastructure remains very poor after years of isolation under communist rule and in the wake of widespread civil unrest last year.
The ARC, working with the International Red Cross under the co-ordination of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has been forced to rely on the goodwill of locals who have taken in their ethnic brethren from Kosovo.
"More supplies are needed and if it was not for the generosity of the local population, the refugee situation would turn really bad," said Mr Subashi.
Foreign Minister Mr Paskal Milo says about 20,000 refugees have crossed into Albania, fleeing violence in Kosovo which has claimed at least 250 lives since February as Serb security forces crack down on separatists.
Most of the refugees arrive in Albania with few possessions, having lost their land and homes. They are exhausted from the long journey by foot through mountain passes and are at risk of diarrhoea, skin infections and epidemics.
The ARC has transported some 45 tonnes of food, blankets and other supplies to the Tropoje area, as well as medical kits with anti-diarrhoea treatments. Another 20 tonnes of food and medical supplies are due to leave Tirana today.
"What we sent was not all for immediate use but it is being used up faster than we can cope with," said Mr Subashi
A communications agency has been set up to reunite families separated while fleeing Kosovo and to register them as official refugees.