GREECE: Around 250 immigrants occupy the Athens University law school and begin a hunger strike to demand legal status

Record ID: 348194

  • Title: GREECE: Around 250 immigrants occupy the Athens University law school and begin a hunger strike to demand legal status
  • Date: 26th January 2011
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JANUARY 25, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ATHENS UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL BANNER DRAPED ACROSS THE ENTRANCE OF THE SCHOOL, READING: "NO IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT PAPERS, NO IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT SOCIAL SECURITY." ENTRANCE TO THE LAW SCHOOL IMMIGRANTS LYING ON THE GROUND, COVERED IN BLANKETS IN A ROOM OF THE LAW SCHOOL IMMIGRANTS ON THE FLOOR OF THE ROOM IMMIGRANT AS
  • Embargoed: 10th February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVANKN3H1M9KWG0AYYX2AT7X888
  • Story Text: Around 250 immigrants occupy the Athens University law school and begin a hunger strike demanding that they be legalised.
    The Athens University Law School was the site of a protest by a few hundred immigrants on Tuesday (January 25) who occupied the campus rooms for a hunger strike.
    The protesters were demanding their status in the country is legalised.
    The nearly 250 migrants have been living mainly on the island of Crete and arrived by boat to Athens. Many have been in the country for several years, but cannot work legally as they have not been granted residency permits.
    The protesters set up blankets as makeshift beds in the school, where they are camping.
    One migrant said they were determined to fight.
    "After so many years, nothing has changed in the law regarding illegal migrants in this country. We are doing this for those who submitted applications in 2005 and they have been cheated out of their money but no one has been legalised. We are determined. The hunger strike starts today. We will consume only sugar, water, and tea until we are legalised or we die," said Rashid, who has been in Greece for six years.
    The legalisation of immigrants is often a lengthy, bureaucratic and costly process that takes years.
    Immigrants working illegally are exploited and have no social and health insurance. And the economic crisis has made matters worse for them.
    Anti-racism groups said some 300,000 illegal immigrants are seeking residency permits in the country, while another 60,000 were seeking asylum.
    The government granted asylum in August to six Iranians who had stopped eating for weeks. Another six Afghan asylum seekers have been on hunger strike for the past month hoping to get refugee status.
    "We are talking about economic migrants who work under very harsh conditions of exploitation. They say they cannot go to a hospital. They cannot go visit their parents or wives, they cannot walk in the street like free, regular citizens like the rest of us. This must end. They have to be legalised, so they can emerge from the darkness into the light," said rights activist Petros Yiotis of the Solidarity Committee group.
    Police cannot intervene in the law school as universities are protected by a law that prohibits authorities from entering.
    The occupation is supported by anti-racism groups and student organisations at the university.
    The hunger strike comes as Greece introduced new immigration legislation this month to better handle immigration issues after being overwhelmed by scores of migrants entering the country.
    The changes include speeding up the processing of applications, including those appealing for asylum, after the authorities were criticised by refugee agency UNHCR for the slow rate of granting asylum.
    Most illegal immigrants trying to enter the European Union passed through Greece in the last year, prompting the government to announce it would build a fence on the Greek-Turkish border to avert entry.
    The fence has caused controversy with human rights groups but most Greeks support it.
    Measures will also include creating more holding centres as the current reception centres are overcrowded and unsanitary. The government says deportation of illegal immigrants will continue, either voluntarily or by necessity, with compensation provided.
    Illegal immigrants have been victims of harassment in Athens in recent months by local residents and right wing groups in one neighbourhood where scores have settled.
    According to government estimates, there are some 500,000 illegal immigrants in Greece, which has a population of 11 million.
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