Athens, June 25, SPA -- Greece has passed a tough new immigration law, allowing it to impose heavy fines on people-traffickers and holdingillegal immigrants for six months before deportation, dpa cited officials as saying today. Under the new law, passed late Wednesday night beforeparliament went into recess for the summer, individuals found guiltyof transporting illegal immigrants will be imprisoned for up to 5years. Human traffickers will also have to pay a fine of 25,000 euros, or50,000 euros for any repeat offence. Deputy Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis said the newmeasures were necessary because too many culprits were being let offafter being apprehended by police or coast guards. "Up until now, we have seen that many are arrested - just thisyear almost 500 have been caught - mostly smuggling illegalimmigrants from Turkey, but none have been sent to jail,"Markoyiannakis said. "We think that the penalties will act as a deterrent and therewill be a reduction in the flow of migrants from the east." Sitting at the crossroads of three continents, Greece has become amain transit point for immigrants seeking entry into the EuropeanUnion. The number of illegal immigrants arriving in the country hassurged over the past year. Last year, almost 150,000 illegal immigrants and more than 2,000traffickers were arrested in Greece. It is not clear how many of thealleged smugglers were actually jailed. Currently, illegal immigrants are detained for three months beforethey are issued deportation papers but under the new law immigrantswill now be detained for six months. The government also announced the creation of immigrantreception centres in Athens to accommodate the thousands of illegalimmigrants currently living in the city. Some opposition parties have dubbed the reception centres"concentration camps." Greece's Communist Country party (KKE), which came in third inrecent EU elections, said that instead of "heralding the creation ofconcentration camps" the government ought to allow the thousands ofimmigrants to go to other EU nations and to legalize the rest. "I would like to believe that when we are ready, when we have thereception centres that we are getting ready, when we start a processof speedier repatriation then things will improve greatly," saidMarkoyiannakis.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/678295