20110128
Xinhua
ATHENS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Tension rose in the Greek capital on Thursday evening over the approximately 300 illegal migrants who have been in Athens University Law School since Jan. 24, demanding legal residence status in Greece through a hunger strike.

After a heated marathon debate of political parties, authorities, media and Greek society in the past few days over how the issue should be tackled, police have surrounded the building in the center of Athens.

Local media reported that police could storm the Law School in the following hours to move the immigrants to another building in Athens. They expressed fears of violent clashes with Left activists and anarchists who have gathered nearby.

The university is off limits to police under the Greek law and police can enter only after a formal request by university authorities and the prosecutor due to a severe crime. On Thursday afternoon university authorities formally requested the lifting of the asylum.

The illegal immigrants and Left activists who support them and led them to Athens last weekend from the southern Aegean island of Crete said that the protest was orchestrated to draw public attention to the problem of illegal migration to Greece.

They argued that thousands of people are obliged to wait for years before their asylum applications could be examined by authorities.

The Greek socialist government, supported by Right opposition political parties, replied that Greece cannot afford to legalize all illegal immigrants, who enter the country in thousands every year.

According to estimates more than 128,000 people entered Greece illegally in 2010, as the country has become a major route for illegal migrants trying to enter the European Union.

Trying to tackle the problem, the Greek government, which has adopted a tougher line over illegal immigration lately, announced this month a plan for the construction of a fence along the Greek- Turkish border line.

Regarding the occupation of the Athens University Law School, the government has repeatedly said that authorities will do anything to avoid force, strongly accusing Left groups of abusing the asylum for political reasons.

The university asylum, which was created to safeguard free exchange of ideas, has been lifted only a few times since the end of the military junta in 1974, in cases Greek anarchists entered university buildings amidst riots.

After the latest occupation of a part of the Law School by illegal immigrants and their supporters, Right political parties have asked for a change of the law to allow police to enter university premises in such cases.