The authorities freed 20 children aged between 13 and 16 who had been forced to beg on the streets of the northern Italian city.

Boatfuls arrive week after week

The children were allegedly under instructions to bring back the equivalent of at least $30 in cash each day or face beatings and torture with cigarette burns.

They had been living in primitive conditions in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city.

Gang members, including three women, have been arrested and charged with exploiting minors.

Sold into slavery

Police said some of the children are believed to have been sold into slavery by their families.

A number of them had already been expelled from Italy but were smuggled back into the country by the gang.

According to the police, more than 800 unaccompanied children from Albania under the age of 16 have arrived in Italy so far this year.

Only 200 have been reunited with their families.

Emergency measure

As another 400 illegal immigrants entered Southern Italy on Albanian smugglers' boats over the weekend, officials from the two countries met to discuss the situation.

Livia Turco, Italy's Minister for Social Solidarity, met the Albanian Prime Minister, Pandeli Majko, and told him that Italy's humanitarian aid programme for Albania was at risk unless firm action was taken to stop illegal migrants crossing the Adriatic Sea to Italy.

The Albanians say they have prepared a draft law to deal with the emergency.

$1000 a head

Boat owners charge around a thousand dollars a head to illegal immigrants wishing to enter the European Union.

They include not only Albanians but also Kurds, Iraqis and North Africans.

Italian police said over 150 of this weekend's immigrants were children.