Illegal migrants evacuate Athens law school

Roughly 250 illegal immigrants — all from North African countries — abandoned an under renovation Athens Law School building in the early morning hours of Friday, ending a standoff that drew even more attention to the spectre of illegal migration, while at the same time reopening heated debate on a controversial law that bestows “asylum” on practically every tertiary educational institution in Greece.

The group of migrants camped inside the law school building and began a hunger strike, as they said, demanding that European Union member-state Greece grant them and all illegal immigrants in the country legalisation and even naturalisation.

The illegal migrants, all men, evacuated the building in downtown Athens and headed — along with supporters affiliated with migrants’ rights groups and leftist political groupings — to a neo-classical building a few kilometres away, and after a cursory agreement was achieved with the building’s owner.

The agreement foresees their stay there no more than 15 days.

The entire group was ferried from the large island of Crete via ferry boat and arrived at dawn on Monday. Most of the migrants ostensibly lack residency papers and even travel documents, working as farm help and unskilled construction workers in Crete, one of the most prosperous regions in the east Mediterranean country of 11 million.

“The government calmly and decisively ensured the peaceful and safe exit of this group from the university and the termination of the asylum’s tresspassing, all while at the same time defending the rule of law,” government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis said.