Police began rounding up hundreds of Albanian illegal immigrants on Saturday for deportation in apparent reprisal for Albania's expulsion of a Greek Orthodox priest.
The Public Order Ministry said at least 900 Albanians had been detained countrywide and would be bused to the border. The roundup would continue, it said.Officials believe there are about 150,000 Albanians working in Greece without proper papers.
Relations between Greece and post-Communism Albania reached a low point Friday after Archimandrite Chrysostomos Maidonis, a Greek, was expelled from the southern town of Gjirokaster.
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The Albanian Foreign Ministry accused Maidonis of trying to "realize chauvinist intentions to Hellenize southern Albania."