Athens – An overall 220 migrants were returned to Turkey from Greece on Friday, partially as part of a deal between the European Union and Turkey aimed at curbing migration movements.
Two boats carrying migrants docked in the western Turkish port of Dikili after they left the Greek Aegean islands.
On board the boats were 124 migrants from Morocco, Pakistan, India, Iraq and Palestine who had not filed for asylum, state radio station ERT reported.
In addition to those migrants, being returned under the EU-Turkey deal, Greece also returned 97 migrants who illegally entered Greece: 71 from Pakistan, 20 from Bangladesh, three Algerians, two from Iran and one from Morocco.
Greece’s refugee crisis committee said it has charted a sharp drop in the number of migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey, compared to arrivals in the previous month, when 900 migrants reached Greece every day.
The committee said Friday that 149 migrants landed on Greek shores in the past 24 hours, in spite of the high risk of being returned to Turkey.
Activists have been protesting against what they described as the deportation of the migrants, which began earlier this week.
Three women attempted to stop one of the boats carrying migrants on Friday and were removed by the coast guard after they climbed up the boat’s anchor chain.
The European border agency Frontex tweeted that one of the migrants it had assisted Greece in returning to Turkey was turned down by Turkey and returned to the Greek island of Lesbos.
The man, a Pakistani national, was rejected due to problems with his identification, a police source said.
Further returns aren’t planned for the moment, as Greece first needs to process migrants’ applications for asylum, a source close to the Greek government said.
On Monday, more than 200 migrants from Lesbos and Chios were taken to Dikili under the terms of the EU migration deal with Ankara.
The agreement seeks to put an end to a migration influx that saw more than 1 million people reach Europe last year. Most of them came via Turkey to Greece, undertaking dangerous sea journeys that not all survived.
On Thursday, about 250 migrants and refugees broke out of a reception centre on the Greek island of Samos, reports said.
They marched through the streets of Vathy, the island’s main town, demanding that they be allowed to continue their journey to the European mainland, and not be taken to Turkey.
Eyewitnesses described how some migrants were carrying knives and threatening security forces.
Police and local authorities from Frontex convinced most of the migrants to return to the reception camp, local radio reports said early on Friday. (dpa/NAN)
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