Kosovo, 1999
	The Kosovo refugee crisis which erupted in March 1999 resulted in the largest single movement of refugees in Europe since the Second World War. With the onset of NATO’s bombing campaign on the 24th March more than  800,000 Kosovar Albanians crossed into neighbouring countries, in particular Albania and Macedonia. The majority had been forcibly expelled from their homes by Serb forces, with over 300,000 arriving in Macedonia within a two week  period. Many had been forced from their homes at gun point, with no time to collect their belongings, and crammed onto trains which brought them to the border. The Macedonian government was reluctant to accept the refugees and over 50,000 were initially held in the no-mans-land at the border post of Blace where they lived for ten days in increasingly appalling conditions.	Fifty thousand Kosovar Albanians, who had been forced from their homes by Serb forces, mass in the no-mans-land on the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. Blace refugee camp, Kosovo-Macedonia border. 1999 After NATO’s assurance that it would establish and resource refugee camps inside Macedonia, and commence an evacuation programme of refugees to third countries, the refugees were transferred to the new NATO camps at Brazde, Stenkovic, and later Cegrane.
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