Dikili (Turkey), April 4
The first migrants deported from Greek islands under a disputed EU-Turkey deal were shipped back to Turkey on Monday in a drive to shut down the main route by which a million people fleeing war and poverty crossed the Aegean Sea in the last year. Under the pact criticised by refugee agencies and human rights campaigners, Ankara will take back all migrants and refugees who enter Greece illegally, including Syrians.
In return, the European Union will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations. Two Turkish-flagged passenger boats carrying 131 mostly Pakistani migrants arrived from the island of Lesbos in the Turkish town of Dikili early on Monday, accompanied by two Turkish coast guard vessels with a police helicopter buzzing overhead, a Reuters witness said.
A third ship carrying 66 people, mainly Afghans, arrived there later from the island of Chios.
The EU-Turkey deal aims to discourage migrants from perilous crossings, often in small boats and dinghies, and to break the business model of human smugglers who have fuelled Europe's biggest influx since World War Two. EU authorities said none of those deported on Monday had requested asylum in Greece and all had left voluntarily.
"We didn't see this morning unrest or riots. The operation was organised properly with the sufficient Frontex presence and with enough, very well organised security guarantees," European Commission spokesman Margaritas Schinas told a news briefing in Brussels.
The EU said at the time of the deal that both Athens and Ankara would need to change their asylum laws-Greece to declare Turkey a "safe third country" to which rejected asylum seekers could be sent, and Turkey to give international protection to Syrians who enter from countries other than Syria, and to non-Syrian asylum seekers returned from Greece. Greece has done its part, but Turkey has yet to change its regulations.
Turkish EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir said there were no Syrians in the first group coming from Greece, but that when they did begin to arrive they would be sent to the southern city of Osmaniye, around 40 km from the Syrian border.
For non-Syrians, Turkey would apply to their home countries and send them back systematically, Bozkir said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster Haberturk. — Reuters
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About the agreement
Under the scheme agreed with the EU last month, one Syrian refugee will be settled in Europe legally in return for every Syrian migrant taken back by Turkey from EU member Greece, which has faced the largest influx in recent months.
First Syrians arrive in Germany
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