Vlora (ship)

The Vlora was a cargo ship built in 1960 in Ancona (Italy) that served as merchant vessel under Albanian flag until 1996. It is most famous for carrying tens of thousands of Albanian refugees to the Italian port of Bari, an unprecedented mass arrival on 8 August 1991 that left Italian authorities unprepared.

The ship was built in the Cantieri Navali Riuniti of Ancona in (Italy) by the Società Ligure di Armamento (based in Genoa). Originally bearing the name Ilice, it was a sister ship to the Ninny Figari, the Sunpalermo and the Fineo. Launched on 4 May 1960 and placed into service on 16 June of the same year, it was sold in 1961 to the government controlled Joint Sino-Albanian Shipping Company, who based it in Durrës under Albanian flag and renamed it the Vlora.

The Fall of communism in Albania taking place in the early 1990s gave way to a major economic collapse (with severe food shortages) amid widespread political and social unrest in the country. This incited many Albanians to try and leave the previously secluded nation, Skanderbeg Street, home to many embassies, was mostly unsuccessfully stormed after rumours spread of visas being handed out, some ethnic Slavs tried to cross into northern neighbour Yugoslavia, while other Albanians fled to Greece in the south. Up to 3000 Albanians managed to enter the compound of the German embassy while some successfully entered the Czech embassy grounds. The ones in the German embassy were later allowed to leave to Germany via Italy.

A good part of emigrants aimed for Italy, less than a hundred miles away from Albanian ports across the Strait of Otranto, partly attracted to the (erroneous) portrayals of wealth on Italian television adverts they were able to watch in Albania. Earlier in 1991 a number of crossings were attempted by hundreds or thousands of Albanian refugees who forcefully commandeered different vessels, from Romanian freighters to Albanian navy tugboats as the overrun harbor security forces in Durrës or Vlora watched on helplessly. One such crossing on 7 March had seen around 20,000 immigrants land in Brindisi on a number of small vessels, the city of only 80,000 had found itself struggling to cope with such an influx, yet the inhabitants generously provided food and shelter and the immigrants were generally well received.

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