Appealing for the "safe movement" of the illegal migrants to another location, Pelegrinis also called on interior minister Yiannis Ragoussis, deputy employment minister responsible for coordination of the government's migration policy Anna Dalara, Attica regional head Yiannis Sgouros and Athens mayor George Kaminis to meet to find a suitable location for the safe transfer of the illegal migrants.
He stressed that the issue was a migration policy matter, and criticised those who "exploited the issue politically, for their own purposes", and charged that some quarters "invested politically" in the dissolution of the university asylum regime, stressing that "there is no issue of forcibly vacating the Law School".
At the same time, Supreme Court prosecutor Ioannis Tentes on Wednesday instructed Athens chief prosecutor Ioannis Sakellakos to "urgently summon" Pelegrinis to provide information and clarifications on the takeover by illegal migrants, and on what stance he intends to take and his intentions on the matter.
Pelegrinis will be asked to clarify whether he intends to immediately convene the Rector's Council and whether he will seek intervention to vacate the Law School premises taken over by the illegal migrants.
Sakellakos was also instructed to point out to the Rector that the premises taken over by the illegal migrants are currently undergoing repair and no classes are being held there, and consequently there is no issue of university asylum.
Addressing his ruling Pasok party's parliamentary group earlier in the day, prime minister Papandreou blasted the "traditional Left", accusing them of "dissolution of the university freedoms" which "will give birth to destructive reflexes for the country", in a reference to the takeover of the Athens University's Law School building, currently closed for repairs, by nearly 300 illegal migrants seeking mass legalisation of all migrants, both legal and illegal, in Greece.
The issue also gave rise to a heated argument in parliament on Tuesday night after Popular Orthodox Rally (Laos) MP Athanasios Plevris charged that a felony was taking place at the Law School, that of illegal trafficking of illegal migrants from the island of Crete to Athens which, he stressed, gives police the right to intervene without prior permission by the Rectors Council.
There are 287 illegal migrants taking part in the takeover, and have also launched a hunger strike, in total, 237 of them camped inside the old law school building in central Athens, and the remaining 50 in Thessaloniki's Labour Centre. Rather than seeking political asylum, the mostly North African and 20-something men are demanding unconditional legalisation of all migrants in Greece, both legal and illegal. The group arrived in Athens from Crete by ferry boat early morning Sunday, a week after the law school's faculty rejected a request by a leftist student grouping to host the hunger strikers.
Retorting to Plevris' statements, SYRIZA MP Th. Dritsas said that "migrants are working people too, without rights and without social security -- they protested in Crete, but no one listened to them".
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) MP Spyros Halvatzis said the migrants' demands were "just", but added that he is disturbed with the risk put to university asylum from the takeover "and its organisers".
Main opposition New Democracy (ND) MP Prokopis Pavlopoulos, in turn, noted the destitute condition of the migrants, but also a decline in lawful order and the quality of democracy in Greece, and warned that the takeover of the Law School harmed the migrants themselves as well as the university asylum.
Justice minister Haris Kastanidis said that everyone's attention should be focused on protecting human rights, and helping people in exceptionally difficult conditions of poverty and destitution to face the difficulties in this transitional period in their lives. "But from that point to the point of having the university asylum placed in doubt is a distance that must not be traversed," he warned.
"The university asylum is being violated, and must be protected, first of all by those who serve it. The university asylum was created to safeguard academic freedom, and not for anyone to do whatever he wants with disregard for the founding act of the university asylum," Kastanidis stressed.
Meanwhile, in a morning interview on a private radio station, Anna Dalara said that the takeover by the illegal migrants creates more problems and does not help their situation, warning that "it is a wrong handling and one with ulterior motives or, in the best case, a naive approach or advice".
She said illegal migration, apart from an issue of illegal entry into the country, also had another dimension: "We have not spoken adequately about the big mass of those who want to leave and are prohibited due to the hypocrisy of the northern Europeans," she said, adding that her efforts are focused on settling the issue "with agreements, pressure, in Europe to confront the issue of these people who come here and want to leave".
"They come here, hunted. They do not come here for Greece but, unfortunately, it is their only entry way," Dalara said.
SOURCE: ANA-MPA
