5,000 Albanians Sail to Freedom : Exodus: In a dramatic nighttime operation, five ships carry asylum-seekers from Europe’s last Stalinist stronghold.

A flotilla of four ships brought thousands of jubilant Albanian dissidents to Italy today and a fifth vessel headed for France with asylum-seekers after a dramatic nighttime exodus from Europe’s last Stalinist bastion.

The refugees, who sheltered for more than a week in foreign embassies in the capital, Tirana, cheered “Italia, Italia,” clapped and waved excitedly as their ships, flying the U.N. flag, reached Brindisi, an Italian port.

A French-chartered ferry carrying 545 refugees who sheltered in France’s Tirana mission was on its way directly to Marseilles.

About 5,000 refugees were brought secretly at night from Tirana to the Albanian port of Durazzo and on to the five ships to avoid a mass assault on the rescue fleet by other dissidents wanting to join the exodus.

The government of President Ramiz Alia this week granted exit visas to the refugees, who scaled walls, broke embassy gates with trucks and squeezed through fences to seek asylum.

The Albanians left the ferries here clutching their belongings in cardboard boxes and plastic bags. One young man arrived wearing only denim shorts and a straw hat.

Hospital officials in Brindisi said around 20 refugees, half of them children, had been admitted for treatment.

They included one man with gunshot wounds, several people with bone fractures and four women, two of them pregnant.

Italian officials reported that scuffles broke out as more asylum-seekers tried to board the ships in Durazzo when the refugees were smuggled out under cover of darkness.

Some of the dissidents had their clothes torn in the confusion, Brindisi official Bruno Pezzutto said. Red Cross officials in Brindisi said they had been asked to supply replacement clothing.

Brindisi official Giuseppe Mazzittello said 3,200 refugees had been evacuated from the West German Embassy, about 850 from the Italian mission and 700 from France’s diplomatic compound.

Both West Germany and France, whose embassies had been two major avenues of escape for the refugees, today temporarily closed their embassies in Tirana, hours after the asylum-seekers had left.

French officials said the closure of its embassy would allow the premises to be cleaned and restored.

West German Embassy press attache Friedrich Catois said 1,070 refugees left from Brindisi on the first train to West Germany.

As the first West German train left the port area, bare-chested, laughing men, looking tired and disheveled, crowded against the windows.

Greek consular official Nicolas Tsamades said 29 refugees from Greece’s mission in Tirana, who joined the sea evacuation, would fly to Athens later in the day.

More than 800 Albanians from the Italian mission in Tirana boarded buses to take them to an unused military camp outside Brindisi, where they will stay until their future is decided.