Deportations start under controversial EU plan
ATHENS, Greece --Under heavy security, authorities on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios deported 202 migrants and refugees on boats bound for Turkey Monday - the first to be sent back as part of a controversial European Union plan to limit the amount of migration to Europe.
The operation started at dawn, as migrants were escorted onto small ferries by officers from the EU border protection agency, Frontex. The boats headed to nearby ports on the Turkish coast, under the program that has been strongly criticized by human rights groups.
The first vessel transporting the migrants, the Nazli Jale, reached the port of Dikili accompanied by the Turkish coast guard. A witness told Reuters there was also a police helicopter buzzing overhead.
The program is so controversial reporters in Lesbos were kept behind a cordon and weren't allowed to speak to people being boarded, reports CBS News correspondent Holly Williams, from Lesbos.
"What we do not know is whether this (deportations operation) will affect the flow of desperate people, many of whom are fleeing war, and hoping for a better life in Europe," Williams said.
Giorgos Kyritsis, a spokesman for a government refugee crisis committee, told state TV, "All of the migrants returned are from Pakistan except for two migrants from Syria who returned voluntarily. There is no timetable for returns. Examining (asylum) applications will take some time."
But the Reuters news agency quotes Turkish EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir as saying there weren't any Syrians in the first group of migrants on the boats.
About 4,000 migrants and refugees have been detained on Greek islands since the agreement came into effect March 20.
Kyritsis said 136 migrants were deported from Lesbos and 66 from the nearby island of Chios, where riot police clashed with local residents hours earlier during a protest against expulsions.
Meanwhile, Syrians sent from Turkey as part of the deal landed in Germany.The 16 Syrian refugees landed in the central German city of Hannover Monday morning aboard a scheduled flight from Turkey and were being taken to accommodation in the region, the dpa news agency dpa reported. Another 16 Syrians were expected in Hannover later in the day.
A small group of protesters outside the Lesbos port chanted "Shame on you!" when the migrant boats set sail, according to Reuters, and volunteer rescuers aboard a nearby boat lifted a banner reading, "Ferries for safe passage, not for deportation."
"This is the first day of a very difficult time for refugee rights. Despite the serious legal gaps and lack of adequate protection in Turkey, the EU is forging ahead with a dangerous deal," Giorgos Kosmopoulos, head of Amnesty International in Greece, told the Associated Press from Lesbos.
"Turkey is not a safe third country for refugees. The EU and Greek authorities know this and have no excuse."
Amnesty International has called the deal "a historic blow to human rights," Reuters reports, adding that, "The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and rights groups have said the deal between the European Union and Turkey lacks legal safeguards."
The operation was supervised by a lieutenant general of the Greek police and occurred peacefully, as ships departed from Lesbos to the Turkish port of Dikili.
The deportations started with migrants who did not apply for asylum or had their applications declared inadmissible.
"Even if this first group is not refugees, what we are seeing here is symbolic kick off of what might be a very dangerous practice of returns to Turkey," Kosmopoulos said.
The EU and Turkey reached the deal last month, after European countries struggled to avoid a repeat of a surge in migration in 2015 that saw more than a million people reach the continent, many fleeing civil war in Syria.
In return for re-admitting migrants, Ankara was promised more financial aid and visa-free travel in the EU for its citizens.
A total of 50,000 migrants and refugees are stranded in Greece following EU and Balkan border closures, but only those who arrived after March 20 will be detained for deportation.