Greece starts deporting migrants

Greek and European Union officials sent them back — 202 migrants — beginning a central part of a deal worked out with Turkey last month to stem the flow of people making the perilous journey to European shores.

In this port on the island of Lesbos, as the sun rose over the Aegean Sea, more than 100 officers from the European border agency, Frontex, marched 136 migrants onto 2 ferries bound for the Turkish town of Dikili. Once there, the migrants were taken into tents for processing and then loaded onto buses — to where, Turkish officials would not say.

An additional 66 migrants were deported from the island of Chios, where riots broke out last week among asylum seekers fearing deportation. In all, Greek officials said those deported were mostly Pakistanis and Afghans, though they also included 2 Syrians, who had not asked for asylum.

The deportations were a significant step for the European Union in its effort to curb the migrant crisis. The deal with Turkey means that those landing here illegally will now be returned to Turkey. Since the deal with Turkey was struck, the number of people attempting the crossing has slowed to a relative trickle — though it has not ended.

Even as the 202 migrants were landing in Turkey on Monday, others were taking off, despite the fact that the Turks had pledged to cut off the route in exchange for 6 billion euros (about $6.8 billion) and other inducements.

In Greece, the deportations have perils of their own, enough to make it unclear whether they can be scaled up quickly and sharply. Though the deportations on Monday did not meet any resistance, they sent new waves of anxiety through the overcrowded military-style camp where migrants are detained in Moria, on Lesbos.

Migrants in the camp shouted to journalists, complaining about their detention and the camp’s conditions from behind a chain-link fence topped with three rows of razor wire. Some yelled that they were being



treated inhumanely and as criminals. Others defiantly said that they would not go home. Police officers then moved in and forced journalists to leave and broke up the crowd gathered at the fence.

In the past week, riots have broken out in several places, especially between Afghans and Syrians, many of whom have little idea of how the asylum process works and have grown increasingly fearful that, having made it this far, they will be sent home.

More than 800 migrants broke out of a camp in Chios Friday to protest what humanitarian groups said were prisonlike conditions.

Greece is still waiting for thousands of police officers and specialists on asylum from other EU countries to arrive to help with the process of sifting who will stay and who will go from among those who had already arrived in Greece before March 20, when the deal with Turkey went into effect.

Those who have arrived since March 20 have been put in holding centres, and will be deported. Turkey and the European Union agreed that the Syrians and Iraqis among them who are judged to be refugees fleeing war can then apply from Turkey for asylum in Europe.

For each new person Turkey takes in, one Syrian refugee already in Turkey will be sent to Europe. Those returned to Turkey and judged by the authorities there to be non-refugees will be sent back to their home countries, Turkish officials have said.

“The main objective is to stick a blow to the business model of human trafficking from the Turkish coasts to the Greek islands,” said Giorgos Kyritsis, the Greek government’s spokesman on migration.

“The deal aims to convince people that until now were victims of the smugglers, that it is against their interests to risk their lives and pay all this money in order to make it to the Greek islands,” he said, “and that the shortest and the only legal way to get to Europe is to be included in the resettlement programme underway in Turkey.”