Thousands of illegal immigrants besieged government offices throughout Greece Tuesday, seeking to have their status legalised under a new law that requires proof of residency for at least a year.
The biggest queues formed in the capital Athens, where the crowds of people who spilled on to the streets caused traffic jams, reporters said.
Among those queuing were some 2,000 people who had been awaiting deportation, but who had been specially released by police so they could start the legalisation process, the public order ministry said.
Under the new law, immigrants have to produce official documentation to prove they have lived in Greece at least since June 2, 2000.
If they do not have an official document, they have until August 2 to produce electricity, gas, telephone or water bills dating back to June last year to show they have lived in the country since then.
According to the interior ministry, some 700,000 to 800,000 people, mostly Albanians, live in Greece illegally.
Procedures to regularise those living in the country illegally began at the end of 1997, but due to the administrative procedures involved, only a few tens of thousands of the 227,700 applications made have been processed.
In a country where xenophobia runs deep, government policy on the issue has wavered in recent years between liberalization and repression – ATHENS (AFP)
