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Turkish monitors arrive on Greek islands for migrant deal Greece: Refugee deal “uphill effort” as more keep arriving
(about 2 hours later)
ATHENS, Greece — Monitors from Turkey have arrived on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios to help supervise an agreement aimed limiting the number of refugees flowing into the European Union via smugglers’ boats. ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s prime minister warned Monday that an international agreement to limit the number of refugees traveling to Europe could not be properly implemented unless smugglers on the Turkish coast are stopped.
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. 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.
Greece’s conservative opposition criticized the Turkish arrivals, a controversial topic as Greece and Turkey have ongoing boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea. The refugee agreement went into effect Sunday, under which Greek authorities will detain newly-arrived refugees and send them back to Turkey and the European Union will settle more refugees directly from Turkey and speed up financial aid to help Turkey care for the 2.7 million Syrian refugees it is hosting.
“I think it is particularly insulting to have Turkish officers operating on Greek territory,” Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, a former merchant marine minister, told private Skai television. On Monday, however, the two sides were still working out details of how the migrants will be sent back.
Government figures released Monday said the number of stranded refugees in Greece exceeded 50,000 with no significant letdown in the number of daily arrivals. “We have to make an uphill effort because implementation of this agreement will not be an easy issue,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.
Tsipras met in Athens with EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and asked the EU to increase pressure on Turkey to crack down on smugglers.
Greek government figures released Monday said the number of stranded refugees in Greece now exceed 50,000 with no significant letdown in the number of daily arrivals.
“Unfortunately, yesterday, there was a high number of arrivals, some 1,500,” Tsipras said. “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.”
Four migrants died Sunday while trying to reach Greece, two men off the island of Lesbos and two girls off the tiny islet of Ro, the coast guard said, as smugglers appeared to be opting for more overnight trips and increasingly dangerous routes.Four migrants died Sunday while trying to reach Greece, two men off the island of Lesbos and two girls off the tiny islet of Ro, the coast guard said, as smugglers appeared to be opting for more overnight trips and increasingly dangerous routes.
Panos Skourletis, Greece’s environment minister, said smugglers needed to be stopped for the deal to work. Monitors from Turkey arrived Monday on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios to help supervise the agreement and were to stay for at least one week.
“On paper, the agreement is balanced and the best result we could get,” he told private Mega television. “But no one can guarantee that it will work in practice. That will become clear over the next few days.” Greece’s conservative opposition criticized the Turkish arrivals, a controversial topic as Greece and Turkey have ongoing boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea.
Under the deal, migrants arriving on Greek islands from Sunday onward will not be allowed to travel to the Greek mainland. But authorities here are still working out how newly-arrived refugees and migrants will be sent back to Turkey. In Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had agreed to the refugee deal with the EU to prevent Syrian refugees from being subjected to “derogatory treatment” as they piled up at closed European borders.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras were meeting on the topic Monday in Athens. He also criticized Western countries for rejecting Turkish proposals for the creation of a no-fly zone or other secure zones in Syria, which he said would have prevented Europe’s refugee crisis.
On the Greek mainland, army personnel continued expanding refugee shelters at sites in central and northern Greece — mostly at former army bases — so migrants who traveled to the Greek islands before the agreement came into effect could be resettled. “All those who have not accepted a no-fly zone and a zone cleared of terror in Syria, and everyone who complains about the refugees are two-faced and hypocritical,” the Turkish president said.
Ferries transporting them from the islands were using the port of Elefsina, west of Athens, instead of the main commercial port of Piraeus, to allow authorities to cope with the increased numbers On the Greek mainland, army personnel expanded refugee shelters at sites in central and northern Greece — mostly at former army bases — so migrants who traveled to the Greek islands before the agreement came into effect could be resettled.
Ferries transporting them from the islands were using the port of Elefsina, west of Athens, instead of the main commercial port of Piraeus, to allow authorities to cope with the increased numbers of migrants.
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Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Turkey.
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Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.