Europe witnessed one of the most extraordinary images in its recent migration history 35 years ago.
On 8 August 1991, the Vlora, an ageing Albanian cargo ship, entered the Italian port of Bari with thousands of people crammed onto virtually every available surface.
They had crossed the Adriatic from a country emerging from almost half a century of one of Europe’s most isolated communist dictatorships. For many Albanians, Italy — visible through television screens long before it became physically reachable — represented freedom, prosperity and, above all, possibility.
Italy was unprepared for an arrival of such magnitude.
Europe had no Frontex, no Migration Pact and nothing resembling today’s common asylum architecture.
