INTERVIEW - Greece to make 250,000 migrant children citizens

By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece, long criticised for its handling of immigrants, will grant citizenship to some 250,000 migrant children but will also send thousands of detained illegal immigrants away, a senior official told Reuters.

Human rights groups for years have denounced Greece's handling of migrants and appalling conditions in migrant detention centres in a country struggling to cope with swelling numbers of people seeking refuge in Europe.

"It's irrational that a child born and educated here cannot receive Greek nationality," Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Spyros Vougias said in an interview on Wednesday.

"There will be a regulation that will rectify this inequality between immigrants' and Greeks' children," he said.

"It's about 250,000 children."

Whether the parents were legal or illegal migrants would not be an issue provided the children were born in Greece or had arrived at an early age and had received basic education in Greek schools, Vougias said.

Asked if parents of these children also would be granted citizenship, Vougias said the government was still studying the matter. He did not say when the new legislation would be passed.

The Socialists, who won a snap election on Oct.4, have set immigration at the top of their agenda, but with most Greeks believing their crisis-hit country cannot take in more migrants, striking the right balance will be a tough challenge.