A charity worker spoke today of the plight facing the Kosovar refugee families he has met in Albania.

John Sargent, 44, campaigns manager for Oxfam in Bradford, has been posted to Albania for three weeks as the charity's press officer.

Speaking from the Albanian capital Tirana, he told the Telegraph & Argus his role was to publicise Oxfam's work with the refugees by liaising with the world's press and media.

He has already shown a Belgian TV crew round Kombinat, a poverty-stricken suburb of Tirana where Oxfam has teamed up with the Albanian organisation Women, Reality and Vision to provide hygiene kits to the hundreds of Kosovar families taken in by local people.

Mr Sargent, who lives in Haworth with his wife Judith and two young children, said: "A lot of the media focus so far has been on the huge camps but what's being missed is that in Albania for every refugee in a camp there are two staying with host families.

"We went to one very small flat where five people normally live but they've got an extended family of 12 staying with them.

"Buildings are in a bad state of repair but inside the flat was absolutely spotless despite having 17 people crammed into it. The Albanian people are clearly very poor but they have an amazing dignity, take real pride in themselves and are very generous.''

He added: "The refugees are very worried about their future and the whereabouts of other relatives.

"Both families we met were headed by women because neither of the men have come out of Kosovo and it's not known what's happened to them.''

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