EU Begins Shipping Migrants in Greece Back To Turkey
Local Editor
A controversial European Union plan to stem the flow of refugees began Monday with the deportation of more than 200 people from Greek islands to Turkey, despite concerns over human rights and criticism that Europe was turning its back on refugees.
Buses filled with migrants left under heavy security from a detention center on the island of Lesbos headed to the port for the short boat ride to the Turkish port of Dikili. More were ferried across from the island of Chios, where riot police clashed hours earlier with demonstrators protesting the expulsions.
In all, 202 people from 11 nations - 191 men and 11 women - were sent back. They included 130 Pakistanis, 42 Afghans, 10 Iranians, five Congolese, four Sri Lankans, three Bangladeshis, three from India, and one each from Iraq, Somalia and Ivory Coast, as well as two Syrians who Greek authorities said had asked to be sent back.
In this regard, human rights groups expressed deep concern over the operation.
"The returns underway this morning in the Aegean are the symbolic start of the potential disastrous undoing of Europe's commitment to protecting refugees," said Amnesty International's deputy director for Europe, Gauri van Gulik. "Urgent key questions are:
What process is everyone going through and what will become of them after their return?"
European officials insist the EU-Turkey agreement is the only way to deter people from heading to Greece from the nearby Turkish coast - a brief but perilous trip that has cost many lives - and to stop what was an almost uncontrolled flow of hundreds of thousands of people heading into Europe's heartland.
Relatively, Balkan and European countries began restricting the flows of refugees and migrants through their borders earlier this year, and shut them completely in early March.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
