In the grounds of the old appeals court in central Athens, hundreds of illegal immigrants have been living for the past six months in very bad conditions without water and electricity, calling on authorities to transform the run-down building into ”the first city shelter for migrants”.
Most of the 550 people living there, are from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The local authorities are unwilling to transform the old building into a shelter for migrants, pointing to the fact that the building belongs to a private insurance firm.
Instead, there are plans of transferring the migrants to a disused military facility in Aspropyrgos, west of Athens. But authorities in Aspropyrgos have expressed their opposition to such an eventuality. Rights groups are pressing the authorities to repair the building and providing migrants a decent place to live. But rightists are opposite to this scenario.
On Saturday 9 May 2009 after a demonstration organized by right-wing organization, nationalists attacked to the building throwing stones and various items against the migrants.
Many of the residents of the building were injured. Rightists are protesting the migrants’ growing presence in Athens.
