At Least 99 Hunger Strikers Hospitalized in Greece

ATHENS, Greece -- More than a third of almost 300 North African immigrants refusing food and water to protest their lack of legal residency status have been rushed to a rash of hospitals here and in another Greek city, ratcheting fresh pressure on a government grappling with unstoppable flows of immigration and a faltering economy.

Today, the 38^th day of what some bill as the biggest hunger strike yet by immigrants in Europe, two young men from Tunisia were admitted to an Athens hospital with severe kidney and heart problems.

In Athens, at least 82 of the 237 strikers -- young men from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia -- have been hospitalized since the first of their compatriots began crumbling last week. Another 17 were hospitalized in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, where 50 men have been refusing food and water since January.

"What is the government waiting for?" snapped Petros Yiotis, a lead activist with the Solidarity Forum, a human rights group that helped organize the hunger strike. "Does it want to see 300 coffins?"

Doctors minding the strikers say their condition is "critical," anticipating dozens more to require hospitalization by the end of the week.

Leftist organizations, political parties and labor unions have sided with the strikers, shaming the government for its handling of the crisis and the country's immigration problem overall.

In recent years, Greece has become the main illegal migration route into the European Union. Immigration flows that once oozed to Italy and Spain now course to Greece. And refugees, who first crossed to Greek islands, now sneak in through the country's northern frontiers with Turkey, the border marked by the Evros River.

About 47,000 crossed the Evros last year alone, adding to the 460,000 immigrants residing in the country without residence permits, according to police estimates. At least 45,000 others have congested the capital and other Greek cities demanding political asylum.

With the country facing its worst recession in 17 years and unemployment surging to nearly 14 percent this year, Greece's debt-strangled government says it can little cope with the immigrants. Harsh spending cuts, it argues, make it difficult to fix its immigration problems.

On Monday, in fact, Interior Minister Yiannis Ragoussis snapped back at the demands of the strikers, questioning why they thought they deserved preferential treatment.

"Why these 300 and not 300 or 400,000 people who are in the same position?" he told the Athens daily Ta Nea. "It is impossible for Greece to allow mass legalizations.

"One need only consider the prospect of boats from North Africa heading for Cretan ports with thousands of immigrants, who would start hunger strikes to demand their own legalization."

Earlier this year, Greece's socialist government announced plans to plant a massive fence near the Evros crossing in hope of stemming the tide of illegal immigration. The plan, though, drew the ire of international organizations and activists already critical of Athens' treatment of illegal migrants and the poor condition of its detention centers.

Social unrest sweeping northern Africa has Greece -- and its European peers -- fearing fresh floods of refugees.

Frontex, the European Union's border agency, in October deployed a rapid-response team in Greece's northern frontiers to help. The team was due to end its mission this week, but its stay will be extended until the end of the year, European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.

The fate of the migrants striking in Athens, though, remains uncertain.

"They remain committed," Yiotis told Skai television network. "Still," he added, "if one of them dies, the repercussions may prove uncontrollable."