Hours after the first boat arrived, a second vessel, the Nazli Jale, docked at the port in Dikili, unloading another 79 migrants, including people from Iraq, Egypt and Afghanistan. But the deal does seem to be working for the European countries who were looking to reduce the flow of migrants-Germany, which has taken in the most migrants, has seen a huge drop in refugee applications.
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Dozens of migrants on Samos and Lesbos also claim to have begun a hunger strike to prevent their expulsion and demand the reopening of borders shut by Balkan nations last month.
Greece on Friday resumed deportations of migrants to Turkey after a four-day pause, despite mounting desperation among refugees and attempts by activists to stop the two boats from leaving Lesbos with 124 people onboard.
“We have been impressed by the generosity of the Greek people who, even in the midst of the severe economic crisis, have offered food, shelter and medicine to those in need”.
Each deportee was accompanied by a guard from the EU’s border agency. Those who left early on Friday were from Pakistan, it said.
In a report released on Friday, Amnesty International noted that on Chios, a lone asylum case official was tasked with processing more than 800 applications.
Violent clashes erupted on the Greek island of Chios Thursday night after an angry crowd of locals, including members of the Golden Dawn political movement, confronted hundreds of refugees who have been living in the island’s port for a week.
While concerns remain over the deal, Germany, Europe’s top destination for refugees said it had “got off to a good start”. On Monday, 202 people were taken from Greece to Turkey.
When migrants arrived in Dikili, after overcoming the Aegean Sea, they were registered by police and migration officials.
The EU-Turkey agreement allows for the return of “irregular migrants” to Turkey from Greece in exchange for Syrian refugees to be relocated within the EU.
Rada Ali, along with her husband and son, were rescued from a dinghy by the Greek Coastguard last week.
“That means repealing this awful deal with Turkey, and advancing large-scale refugee resettlement, humanitarian visas, and family reunification guided not by migration control but by a commitment to safe and legal alternatives to human smugglers for people who need refuge”.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: “I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under global law”. Police scuffled with groups of Greek protesters staging rival demonstrations in support of and in opposition to the migrants.
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“On the edge of Europe, refugees are trapped with no light at the end of the tunnel”, Amnesty’s deputy Europe director Gauri van Gulik said.
