Greece ships out first migrants
More than 200 sent to Turkey as part of controversial deal
LESBOS, GREECE // Greece sent more than 200 migrants back to Turkey yesterday in the first deportations under a controversial deal aimed at easing Europe’s migration crisis.
The orderly return of the 202 migrants on three chartered Turkish ferries was in stark con- trast to the journey many took over perilous seas, on crowded and leaky rubber dinghies.
Two boats left the Greek island of Lesbos at dawn, and another from the island of Chios, carrying mostly economic migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan who will eventually be deported to their home countries.
The grim-faced migrants were put on the boats by security guards from the EU’s Frontex border agency who were wearing sanitary face masks.
Facing an influx that has threat- ened to tear the bloc apart, the EU clinched a last- ditch deal with Turkey to take back all migrants landing in Greece after March 20.
The EU has pledged to take in one Syrian for every one deported from Greece, with numbers capped at 72,000.
It kept its side of the pact with 32 asylum seekers from Syria flying into the German city of Hanover.
EU leaders hope this will discourage migrants from risking the crossing that has claimed 366 lives this year, and break up the lucrative racket that smuggled about a million migrants into Europe last year.
But rights groups have called the deal inhumane and against the right to request asylum.
Protesters on Lesbos held banners reading, “Stop the dirty deal”, “Stop deportations” and “Wake up Europe”.
The first to be deported arrived at the Aegean resort of Dikili to a heavy security presence.
“The taking of fingerprints, the landing at the port, medical checks, the transport of the 202 people in buses to reception centres in Kirklareli [on the Bulgarian border] is all taking place successfully,” said Mustafa Toprak, governor of Turkey’s Izmir region.
Yorgos Kyritsis, Greece’s migration spokesman, said the first wave contained citizens from Iran, Congo, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Ivory Coast and Somalia.
Only two were from Syria and they had requested to return for personal reasons, Mr Kyritsis said.
Turkish EU affairs minister Volkan Bozkir said the non-Syrian migrants would be sent to Kirk- lareli for checks before being sent home.
“People who have migrated for purely economic reasons are to be sent back according to the rules,” Mr Bozkir said. “We will apply to the countries of the illegal migrants. They can be our guests for a while and then, bit by bit, we will send them back.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the deal, it appeared to be reducing the flow.
Turkey’s interior minister Efkan Ala said at the weekend that the numbers crossing had already fallen substantially in the past 10 days to just 300 people a day. But some decided to chance it despite the risk of being sent back, and the Turkish coastguard yesterday blocked a boatload of about 60 mostly Afghan migrants.
Those in Greece are now rushing to speed up their asylum requests to avoid deportation.
“Lawyers came to talk to us through the fence and explain that it was best to do that,” said Toufik, an Afghan in the Moria migrant camp on Lesbos. German chancellor Angela Merkel has a particular interest in the deal, as her country accepted a record 1.1 million migrants last year after she refused to cap refugee numbers, earning her criticism at home and within the EU.
In return for its assistance in the deal, Turkey will receive billions in EU aid, accelerated visa- free travel for its citizens and progress in its bid for membership of the bloc.