The UNHCR also expressed concern that the European Union and Greek authorities are rushing into the implementation of the agreement with Turkey, which will see refugees and migrants returned to Turkey, from where other refugees will be resettled directly. Turkey’s president, meanwhile, slammed European countries for their criticism of his country’s record on human rights and media freedoms and accused them of failing to protect the rights of refugees.
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“We are creating between 500 and 1,000 additional shelter places every day… and the total right now is 36,000”, Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas said.
The officers arrived Monday and were to stay for at least one week, as Greek authorities scrambled to implement the landmark deal reached last week between the EU and Turkey that includes faster refugee relocations to European countries as well as collective deportations of migrants from Greek islands back to Turkey.
More than 50,000 migrants are now stuck in Greece after Balkan states to the north closed their borders, increasing the onus on Turkey to slow the flow of new arrivals to allow Greece to clear the backlog and put the new plan into effect.
“If a reduction of [refugee] flows does not occur, we will not be able to evacuate the islands successfully so that the deal can start to be implemented fully”, he added.
The Turkish coastguard said it had intercepted 126 migrants trying to cross to Greece since Saturday, without saying how many had been after the deal came into force.
Since the accord took effect, 1,662 migrants have landed in Greece, SOMP said, including 830 on Chios and 698 on Lesbos, two islands in the northeast Aegean which lie close to Turkey. “The management of the refugee crisis for Europe as a whole hinges on the progress and success of this agreement”, he said.
The EU has promised 2,300 officials and police to help the operation, according to the Greek government, but as of Monday none had arrived, SOMP said.
Greece’s conservative opposition criticized the Turkish arrivals, a controversial topic as Greece and Turkey have ongoing boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea.
“We are conscious of the difficulties”, EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said in Brussels.
“Where are we going?” asked one Syrian woman who was travelling with her husband and daughter.
Police said Monday they are suspected of organizing accommodations, transfers and the smuggling of seven illegal migrants from Turkey and Syria to Hungary for 5,250 euros ($5,910).
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Germany saw the highest level of net immigration of foreigners since World War II previous year due to the refugee crisis. But while over a million migrants reached Europe’s shores in 2015 alone, Syria’s neighbours have shouldered the bulk of the refugee crisis triggered by the five-year war. Hundreds of mostly Syrian asylum-seekers continued to arrive in Greece by sea Sunday despi…
