Citizen Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis said disused army bases could help ease serious overcrowding at existing detention centers as Greece plans to overhaul rules for granting immigrants asylum.
Earlier this week, Papoutsis announced plans to build a 12.5 kilometre fence on the Greek-Turkish border, to prevent new arrivals. Decades-old military minefields have been cleared in the area, prompting a shift in immigration patterns this year away from busy clandestine sea routes between the Turkish mainland and Greek islands.
Greece is the busiest transit point for illegal immigrants coming into the European Union. The country is receiving emergency assistance from the EU border agency, Frontex, to deal with the problem.
"We are looking at military facilities that are not being used by the Greek armed forces ... to allow humane living conditions for immigrants who enter our country," Papoutsis told private Mega television.
"There must be some order, Greece can no longer tolerate this situation," he said. "200-300 people enter the country every day without papers."
Papoutsis, a former EU commissioner, said Greece is seeking the urgent renegotiating of European Union asylum rules that allow member states to send back migrants to the country of entry into the 27-member union.
Immigrant, human rights and other protest groups are planning a demonstration in Athens on January 15 against the proposed border fence.
One protest organizer, Petros Constantinou, told the AP that related protests were also being planned that day outside Greek embassies abroad.
"There is no way that we will just accept these measures," Constantinou said. "We want our borders to be an area where we meet the citizens of other countries - not the edge of a prison," he said.
Greece says about 128,000 immigrants had entered Greece illegally in 2010.
(AP)
