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BARI, Italy (AP) - More than 1,000 illegal immigrants in an old tugboat landed in southern Italy on Saturday under Italian military escort, the biggest single arrival in a weeks-long influx of Gypsies from Yugoslavia.
Authorities said 489 of the 1,010 aboard were children. The would-be refugees burst into applause when they docked at the southern port of Bari.
Thousands of Gypsies have landed illegally in Italy since the war in Kosovo ended, with many saying they were fleeing revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province.
``The Albanians are hunting us,'' one man, identified only as Ekrep, was quoted as telling Italy's ANSA news agency. ``We have nothing, we have no homes, we have nothing to eat, and above all, we're afraid. Afraid of being killed.''
Italy declared in mid-July it would treat the Gypsies as illegal immigrants rather than refugees, and return them immediately. But most have been taken to reception centers, which are often just first stops en route to points elsewhere in Europe.
The new arrivals had left Friday from the coast of Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation.
Once docked, the passengers were taken for medical examination and for identification and then on to reception centers.
Authorities took into custody two men from Romania suspected of being immigrant traffickers.