ATHENS, ANKARA SPAR OVER MIGRANTS
Greece’s prime minister warned Monday that an international agreement to limit the number of refugees travelling to Europe could not be properly implemented unless smugglers on the Turkish coast are stopped.
Turkey’s president, meanwhile, slammed European countries for their criticism of his country’s record on human rights and accused them of failing to protect the rights of refugees.
The refugee agreement went into effect Sunday, under which Greek authorities will detain newly arrived refugees and send them back to Turkey and the European Union will settle more refugees directly from Turkey and speed up financial aid to help Turkey care for the 2.7 million Syrian refugees it is hosting.
“If a reduction of (refugee) flows does not occur, we will not be able to evacuate the islands successfully so that the deal can start to be implemented fully,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.