E.U. Deal Takes Effect: Greece began to send refugees back

Greece — Before a long-negotiated European Union accord with Turkey went into effect last month, the breezy Greek island of Lesbos, set in the shadow of the Turkish mainland, was a port of passage for hundreds of thousands refugees seeking to travel further into Europe.

On Monday, the Greek and European Union authorities effectively started ushering people out, as a phalanx of police officers began enforcing a program of mass deportations of migrants back to Turkey.

As the sun rose over the Aegean Sea, the final leg of many refugees’ journey to reach European shores, more than 100 officers from the European border agency Frontex marched 136 migrants who had been held in a closed, military-run camp here onto the ramp of two ferries.

With Greek riot police flanking the port, the boats set sail to the western Turkish town of Dikili, where the migrants — mostly Pakistanis — disembarked and were taken into tents for processing before being loaded onto buses. Turkish officials blocked journalists’ access to the migrants and declined to comment on where they were being taken.

No Syrian refugees were present in the first group of migrants that arrived back in Turkey on Monday, Volkan Bozkir, the European affairs minister for Turkey, said in a statement on Monday.

Turkish officials have said that non-Syrians would be deported under the new deal, but it was not immediately known whether the migrants being returned to Turkey on Monday would face deportation.

Turkish officials have indicated, however, that people believed to be economic migrants will at some point be sent back to their home countries.

Around 66 migrants were also shipped back to Turkey on Monday morning from the Greek island of Chios, where riots recently broke out among asylum seekers who feared that they might not be able to stay in Europe.

More than 800 migrants broke out of a military camp there Saturday to protest what humanitarian groups said were prisonlike conditions.

Separately, Germany announced it was preparing to receive 40 Syrians, mostly women and children, from Turkey later on Monday, as part of a broader European Union initiative intended to help process asylum seekers and to deter illegal crossings into Europe from Turkey — as well as the smugglers behind them.

Turkey and the European Union sealed a deal last month requiring migrants who illegally reach Greece from Turkey after March 20 to be returned to Turkey unless they qualify for asylum — a status that was recently limited to Iraqis and Syrians.

In return, the European Union has pledged to take in thousands of Syrian refugees from Turkey as well as to give Ankara more than 6 billion euros, or about $6.8 billion, in aid to improve conditions for migrants living in Turkey.

The agreement also calls for visa-free travel for Turkish citizens traveling in the Schengen area of the European Union, which covers most of the Continent, if Turkey meets certain conditions by the summer.