The deportations are part of the deal struck between the European Union and Turkey to get rid of economic migrants and allow Syrians fleeing war the chance of asylum.
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“It has been postponed to Friday” from Wednesday, the official told AFP, asking not to be named. Local officials on the island of Chios said more migrants could be sent back from there on Wednesday.
Over 51,000 refugees and migrants seeking to reach northern Europe are stuck in Greece, after Balkan states sealed their borders.
Under the EU-Turkey agreement, those arriving on Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast on or after March 20 are eligible for deportation if they do not apply for asylum or their application is rejected or inadmissible.
But in Athens, a Greek government source denied that a date for the next transfer had ever been set. Over 200 of those migrants were sent back to Turkey on Monday morning.
A total of 50,000 migrants and refugees are stranded in Greece following the border closures of European nations further north, but only those who arrived after March 20 – about 4,000 of them – are being detained for deportation.
In the preceding days migrants have repeatedly broken out of the new holding centers on the Greek islands, and some have even threatened to kill themselves if returned to turkey.
Greece is straining under the dual pressure of the financial and migrant crises.
First to arrive in Germany from Turkey were 32 Syrian migrants after being flown to Hanover in Lower Saxony.
“We have been in touch with the Greek authorities and said we could take 500 people and they have given us 400 names”. They argue it is a pragmatic solution that deters people-smugglers.
“Turkey is not a safe third country for refugees”, said Giorgos Kosmopoulos, the head of Amnesty International in Greece, according to the Al-Jazeera report.
This first group of 191 men and 11 women deported from Greek isles included 130 Pakistanis, 42 Afghans, 10 Iranians, five Congolese, four Sri Lankans, three Bangladeshis, three Indians, two Syrians and one each from Iraq, Somalia and the Ivory Coast.
Some of the 138 refugees escorted by Turkish police arrive in Turkey from Moria Refugee Camp in Greek Island of Lesbos. Kakissis said that when talking to refugees, they tell relatives in their home countries not to come.
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Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the aid organizations that has been monitoring the turn-backs from Greece to Turkey, called the first returns “dodgy”.
