Former PM and New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras expressed his outrage on Tuesday evening in the wake of circular, by a top police official, closing down migrant detention centres and allowing third country nationals sneaking into Greece the right to stay legally for up to six months.

Samaras sharply criticised the decision, and referred to an “incredible, unimaginable and provocative” decision, while he argued that the current coalition, between ruling leftist SYRIZA and its junior partner, the rightist-populist Independent Greeks party, is turning Greece into a “magnet” for illegal immigrants.

Nevertheless, several government officials denied any change in policy on the issue, although later reports on Wednesday morning confirmed that the circular did, in fact, exist.