The interior ministry on Tuesday ruled out all prospect of further large-scale and indiscriminate legalisation of non-legal migrants in Greece, in comments on the take-over of an Athens University law school building by hunger-striking illegal migrants demanding residence permits.
The ministry stressed that no mass legalisation process for migrants had taken place since the last national elections and there were no plans for one in the future. It said that the government would stick firm to a policy of promoting social integration for legal migrants while dealing decisively with illegal migration.
Meanwhile, university authorities have temporarily shut down the law school until Friday, citing health and safety concerns linked to the presence of the 250-odd migrants camped inside, while university authorities and the government argued over who would be responsible for getting them out.
Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou pointed out that university's were self-administrating and the onus was on the rectors to call in police. She also noted that specific political groups were responsible for smuggling the migrants into the university.
"These unfortunate people that are in the Law School did not get there by chance, they were led and guided. It is infuriating that political forces provocativley take advantage of human pain in order to serve party goals, abusing university freedoms," she underlined.
The minister stressed that converting the law school into a migrant camp was intolerable and stressed that Athens university authorities were obliged under law to take action to defend the school's operation and invite the police in to remove the migrants.
Sources within the Citizens' Protection ministry stressed that police did not have powers to prevent the migrants from entering the university grounds where they would be protected by asylum laws, noting that such a course would amount to simply arrested anyone they found walking in the streets.
The same sources stressed that university asylum was protected by its own institutions and procedures, which had to continue to be protected by those responsible. Under these, the police are always the last to be called in to a campus, by order a public prosecutor and only if a crime had been committed.
Athens University administrative authorities have criticised the government for failing to intervene to stop the take-over, saying that police had been informed about the group's intentions by the university.
In an announcement on Tuesday, the School of Law, Economics and Political Sciences said that the student faction responsible for bringing the migrants to the university had asked permission to use the old Law School building, which is currently empty and undergoing renovation, which university authorities had denied.
On Sunday, more than 200 migrants that had travelled to Athens from Crete entered the grounds of the law school and announced that they would begin a hunger strike unless the Greek state agreed to renew their residence permits.
"We understand the more general problem of the migrants and have actively shown our sensitivity on this issue, which must, however, be dealt with by the state with specific policies and adequate measures. The University cannot and must not be used as a lever for exerting pressure to solve such issues," the announcement stressed.
It called on the state to intervene and provide a safe facility to house the migrant while their demands were being examined, stressing that the university was not responsible for solving the problems.
The migrants' presence was also strongly condemned as an abuse of university asylum by the university professors' union POSDEP.
source: ana
