1,600 refugees land in Greece

More than 1,600 migrants have landed in Greece since a landmark EU-Turkish deal on curbing the influx took effect, officials said on Monday, highlighting the challenges still facing efforts to tackle the crisis.

The EU and Ankara reached an agreement at a summit on Friday aiming to cut off the sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands that enabled 850,000 people to pour into Europe in 2015, many of them fleeing conflict in Syria.

The deal, under which all migrants landing on the Greek islands face being sent back to Turkey, went into effect early on Sunday but the influx has continued, according to the SOMP agency, which is coordinating Athens’ response to the crisis.

Since the agreement took effect, 1,662 migrants have landed in Greece, SOMP said, including 830 on Chios and 698 on Lesbos, two islands in the northeast Aegean which lie close to Turkey, SOMP said.

The continuing flow “creates a problem, and raises questions about the intent of all parties” in the agreement, SOMP spokesperson Giorgos Kyritsis said.

The Turkish Coast Guard said it had intercepted 126 migrants trying to cross to Greece since Saturday, without saying how many had been after the deal came into force.

Monitors from Turkey have arrived on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios to help supervise the EU-Turkey deal.

The officers arrived on Monday and were to stay for at least one week.

Greece’s conservative Opposition criticised the Turkish arrivals, a controversial topic as Greece and Turkey have ongoing boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea. “I think it is insulting to have Turkish officers operating on Greek territory,” Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, a former merchant marine minister, said.