UK team to help Greeks send back migrants

A BRITISH immigration hit squad will be sent to Greece to deport migrants after fewer than 750 were returned under a £5billion deal with Turkey.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd will today deploy up to 40 officials to popular holiday islands such as Kos and Lesbos.

Since March, all arrivals on the islands should have been stopped from crossing to the Greek mainland and sent back to Turkey.

But figures yesterday reveal just 748 have been returned since the costly deal, which included £500million from Britain.

European officials also believe up to 4,000 people registered in Greece’s migrant camps are unaccounted for and could have slipped into the rest of Europe.

As concerns grow that the Turkish agreement is on the verge of collapse, Miss Rudd will today attend a meeting of European interior ministers in Brussels.

Since the deal, the number of crossings from Turkey has been

‘On the verge of collapse’

dramatically cut to around 80 a day. But this remains much higher than the number of people being sent back, a European Commission report found yesterday.

The number returned to Turkey include 394 Pakistanis, 61 Afghans, 68 Algerians and 42 Syrians, 26 Bangladeshis, 18 Iranians and 17 Iraqis. Just four went back in the first two weeks of November.

There are 16,295 migrants on the islands but only 8,204 places in official camps and temporary housing. Overcrowded camps have been set ablaze by migrants frustrated that they are being stopped from continuing north.

Last month Belgium evacuated its border officials because of fears over their safety.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been threatening to ‘open its borders’ to let migrants flood into Europe.

He is angry that the European Parliament voted to suspend talks on Turkey joining the EU because of repression after a failed coup.