Greece expels more migrants to Turkey under EU deal
Refugees and migrants board a bus at the Port of Mytilene on Lesbos island, after being rescued at sea by the Greek coastguards.
AFP, Athens :
Greece deported a second batch of more than a hundred migrants to Turkey on Friday and Germany announced a sharp drop in asylum claims, as Europe toughens efforts to end its worst migration crisis since World War II.
A police source on the Greek island of Lesbos said 45 Pakistani men had been put on a Turkish ferry, despite efforts by activists to stop the second expulsion operation under an EU-Turkey deal that has been slammed by rights groups.
A small group of activists who jumped into the water and clung onto the ferry’s anchor were pried off by coastguards and briefly detained.
Some 30 protesters also gathered at Lesbos’ port, chanting “Stop deportations”, “EU, shame on you” and “Freedom for the refugees”.
Turkish state television showed the migrants getting off the boat in the port of Dikili, where they were taken to tents set up for registration and health checks.
A second group of 79 mainly Pakistani migrants then left Lesbos for Turkey aboard a catamaran, police sources said. Both vessels have been chartered by EU border agency Frontex.
The first transfer of more than 200 people from the islands of Lesbos and Chios to Turkey took place Monday but a last-minute flurry of asylum applications by migrants desperate to avoid expulsion has since stalled the process.
In Germany, Europe’s top destination for refugees, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere announced that asylum applications had dropped 66 percent drop in March after a string of border closures in the Balkans halted the influx from Greece.
Greece deported a second batch of more than a hundred migrants to Turkey on Friday and Germany announced a sharp drop in asylum claims, as Europe toughens efforts to end its worst migration crisis since World War II.
A police source on the Greek island of Lesbos said 45 Pakistani men had been put on a Turkish ferry, despite efforts by activists to stop the second expulsion operation under an EU-Turkey deal that has been slammed by rights groups.
A small group of activists who jumped into the water and clung onto the ferry’s anchor were pried off by coastguards and briefly detained.
Some 30 protesters also gathered at Lesbos’ port, chanting “Stop deportations”, “EU, shame on you” and “Freedom for the refugees”.
Turkish state television showed the migrants getting off the boat in the port of Dikili, where they were taken to tents set up for registration and health checks.
A second group of 79 mainly Pakistani migrants then left Lesbos for Turkey aboard a catamaran, police sources said. Both vessels have been chartered by EU border agency Frontex.
The first transfer of more than 200 people from the islands of Lesbos and Chios to Turkey took place Monday but a last-minute flurry of asylum applications by migrants desperate to avoid expulsion has since stalled the process.
In Germany, Europe’s top destination for refugees, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere announced that asylum applications had dropped 66 percent drop in March after a string of border closures in the Balkans halted the influx from Greece.
