Migrants keep arriving in Greece despite deal to return them

[webfact]

Migrants keep arriving in Greece despite deal to return them
By DEMETRIS NELLAS and DOMINIQUE SOGUEL

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of mostly Syrian asylum-seekers continued to arrive in Greece by sea Sunday despite the start of an international agreement to send migrants back to Turkey.

While the deal between the European Union and Turkey is officially in effect, the process for deporting migrants has yet to be worked out. Greek and Turkish officials are set to hold discussions on Monday. And Greece is still awaiting the arrival of 2,300 European experts, including translators, to help carry out the agreement.

In the meantime, the EU said any new arrivals in Greece from now on will be subject to possible deportation.

At least 875 new refugees — mostly Syrians, along with Iraqis and Afghans — landed on four of Greece's Aegean islands close to the Turkish coast between Saturday evening and daybreak Sunday. Two Syrian men were found dead of undetermined causes aboard a boat arriving on the island of Lesbos, and two girls were found drowned east of Rhodes, officials said.

The EU-Turkey plan, agreed to on Friday, aims to halt smuggling by sending migrants who do not qualify for asylum back to Turkey. As part of the deal, European nations will then accept refugees directly from Turkey, starting April 4. The hope is to discourage asylum-seekers from trying to make the dangerous trip across the Aegean Sea on their own in flimsy boats.

Turkey is also required to step up efforts to crack down on illegal migration. The deal puts Ankara on the fast track to get $6.6 billion in aid to deal with refugees on its territory. It could also lead to unprecedented visa concessions for Turks to visit Europe and a re-energizing of the country's EU membership bid.

Turkey, which is already hosting 2.7 million refugees from war-torn Syria, has been a primary departure point for Europe, while Greece has borne the brunt of arrivals. More than 1 million migrants have arrived in Europe over the past year.

Giorgos Kyritsis, a spokesman for the Greek government's Refugee Crisis Coordination Center, said none of the 2,300 experts promised by the EU has arrived yet.

The EU-Turkey deal "is in force. Its practical implementation remains to be seen," Kyritsis said, adding that Greece had done its part to prepare the temporary camps where the migrants will be processed.

Those who arrived in Greece up until Sunday morning will be subject to the old rules, which say that for every Syrian returned to Turkey, another Syrian will be resettled in an EU country, Kyritsis said.

A Turkish news agency reported Sunday that 320 would-be migrants to Greece had been intercepted in a coastal Turkish town. The private Dogan agency said the migrants were caught in the town of Dikili, a main crossing point to Lesbos.

Amid all this, Greece is still relocating migrants from its islands to temporary refugee camps on the mainland. A ferry carrying 1,169 migrants arrived Sunday at the port of Elefsina, west of Athens. Another ferry carrying some 1,300 migrants was on its way to Elefsina from Lesbos.

The arriving refugees were put on buses headed for a camp near the northwestern city of Ioannina. The camp will contain 420 tents that can house eight to 10 people each.

"I don't want (to) go back to Turkey, because I would be back to the work and the hard life. Difficult life. I wish (to) continue my race to Europe to see my family and continue my studies," Syrian refugee Amdelsher Abdel Hannan said as he was getting on a ferry to take him from Lesbos to the Greek mainland.

On the Greek border town of Idomeni, where about 10,000 migrants who were refused entry into Macedonia are stranded, the mayor criticized what he said are plans to make the sprawling, muddy, makeshift encampment permanent.

The government "asked us to bring sleeping cars through Hellenic Railways, approximately seven or eight cars to accommodate refugees. That's not the solution. I think the (camp) should be evacuated," said Christos Goudenoudis, mayor of Peonia.

"The locals are starting to fear what the migrants will do when they run out of money," Goudenoudis said.

Kyritsis told The Associated Press the government plans to evacuate the Idomeni encampment, not make it permanent.

Refugees started piling up in Greece after Austria and countries farther north started closing their borders to them.
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Online:
EU Commission Q&A on migration deal: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-963_en.htm
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Soguel reported from Istanbul. Petros Giannakouris in Lesbos, Costas Kantouris in Idomeni, Greece, and Raphael Kominis in Elefsina, Greece, contributed to this story.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-21

[jaidam]

How insulting. They are going to arrive in droves now, a veritable horde. For every migrant that reaches Greece, the EU will accept a muslim migrant and give full welfare benefits for life for the migrant, his extended family, and the extended family of the extended family and so on for ever. Enjoy life in the relative freedom we enjoy and take for granted, when the liberals have finally won and we live under Sharia there will be plenty of time for reflection, woulda,coulda and shouldas - and in my case - plenty of I told you so's.

[Ulic]

The migrants will not stop until there is news coverage of migrants stepping off the boat and entering Turkey after being returned. Until then they are racing to get in "under the wire". The door may have already closed but most think they will be grandfathered a pass into Germany/Sweden if they can get to Greece before the deportation returns start.

[wabothai]

It is not only this day's or this week's invasion. It will be ongoing for years untill Europe, as we used to know, has disappeared and slowly will become an islam state. Our so called coward leaders refuse to face reality, just to keep their well paid jobs and fear of losing face.

Close the borders and create safe heaven in the middle east, and not blackmailing Erdogan's Turkey.

[Galactus]

It is not only this day's or this week's invasion. It will be ongoing for years untill Europe, as we used to know, has disappeared and slowly will become an islam state. Our so called coward leaders refuse to face reality, just to keep their well paid jobs and fear of losing face.

Close the borders and create safe heaven in the middle east, and not blackmailing Erdogan's Turkey.

so why turks need to take care all the migrants bc of Syrian civil war created by USA, Russia and Western powers?

why Europe did not act by sending their troops to Syria to kill the problems there in advance? or why they refused a proposed buffer no fly zone in Syria to accommodate the migrants in their own countries?

Sorry, Europe did wrong and did not act on time and now it is pay back time and Europeans, please dont cry.

anyway, there will be no EU soon what i see.

and you have to ask yourself; what if turks open their land borders and send all those 3 million migrant to Europe by allowing them safe passage?

keep in mind, no army can stop millions of migrant moving adn walking together and no borders can prevent them from entering.

you have to appreciate turks if they offered an agreement to Europe and for keeping millions of migrants in Turkey and damn your own government and politicians for their short sight and incompetence.

personally i dont support the agreement made with Europe and if it is me, i just open land borders and send all those migrants to Europe.

[steven100]

stop the boats .... go after the smugglers making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[lungmi]

Islamophobie, the infection of the Trump psychosis takes over some posters.