Students protest end of asylum law

Students clashed with police in central Athens on Friday during a protest against reforms to the higher education system by the country’s conservative government.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse protesters when they tried to break a police cordon barring access to the Parliament building.

The rally was organized by 16 Athens-based student unions to underline opposition to the recent abolition of the so-called asylum law, which had banned police from entering university grounds, as well as reforms ending a system that allowed students to prolong their studies indefinitely.