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A number of immigrants from the detention centre in Amigdaleza near Athens tried to escape late on Tuesday evening. During the rebellion, they set fire to two containers in sector I, where they are accommodated, and shouted slogans. The attempted escape was foiled by units of the Greek police.

On Monday, Deputy-Minister of Citizen Protection Yiannis Panousis had declared that the purpose of the new Greek government was to close down this centre within 100 days. The immigrants there would be moved to three open centres, where the living conditions would be much better. The decision to build them had been made by the previous government and according to the new ministers it would take time to prepare them.

Meanwhile, Yiannis Panousis and his colleague, Deputy Minister of Migration Policy Tasia Christodoulopoulou have issued a joint decision that introduces a limit on the detention of illegal immigrants for up to 18 months.

The document states that their intention is to immediately release those foreign citizens who have been in the centre for more than 6 months as well as all who belong to the so-called "vulnerable" groups, such as pregnant women, sick and elderly people, and others.

There is a probability of those foreigners who are under arrest for having illegally entered Greece initially being released on condition that they will appear at the local police station each month. And this despite the fact that most immigrants have no permanent address.

The two deputy ministers grounded the decision to close down the centre in Amigdaleza arguing that it was located in a police base and could not therefore be converted into a free accommodation centre. At the same time, however, they left open the possibility of other centres in the country continuing to operate as before.

Senior police officials disagreed with the decision of the deputy ministers. According to them, there are no longer immigrants who have been in Amigdaleza for more than 18 months or members of "vulnerable" groups among the 4,500 detainees there.

The data show that there are 1,120 foreigners in the centre today. 220 of them have applied for the status of refugees whereas 440 other illegal immigrants have been in the centre for more than 6 months.

It is worth noting that there have been problems in providing for detainees in recent months due to the delayed payments to food delivering companies. According to the newspaper Kathimerini, the reasons lie in the decisions of the State Legal Council and the Service for Budgetary Control.

This issue provoked former Minister of Public Order Nikos Dendias to intervene. He stressed that "all prerequisites for the proper functioning of the single system for granting refugee status and for managing the migration flows existed until May 2014," adding, "a change in the policy that has been applied so far will have catastrophic consequences for the social cohesion and security in the country."