Migrant crisis: Deportations resume from Greece to Turkey

A second group of deported migrants has arrived by ferry in Turkey from Greece as part of an EU deal to reduce the numbers reaching Europe.

The boat carrying 45 Pakistanis left the Lesbos port of Mytilene for Izmir despite protesters' efforts to stop it.

Three demonstrators who dived into the harbour were fished out by coastguards.

Some 200 mainly Pakistanis were deported on Monday under an EU deal with Turkey, the main transit route for undocumented migrants.

However, the returns process was interrupted as asylum applications surged in Greece.

Under the EU deal with Turkey, migrants who have arrived illegally in Greece since 20 March are expected to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected.

And for each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the EU is due to take in another Syrian who has made a legitimate request.

Water and breakfast

Each deportee was accompanied by a guard from the EU's border agency, Frontex, with a doctor and interpreters also aboard.

"Nobody indicated to our escorts last-minute that they would like to apply for international protection," Frontex spokesperson Ewa Moncure told reporters in Greece.

Greek customs officials told the BBC a second boat carrying 95 migrants would also set out on Friday.

Of those being returned to Turkey on Friday, the non-Syrians will be taken to deportation centres while any Syrians will be taken to refugee camps to take the place of Syrian refugees who will be directly resettled in the EU.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned his country will only implement the deal if the EU sticks to its side of the bargain:

• A further €3bn (£2.4bn; $3.4bn)
• Galvanising Turkey's EU accession process
• Granting Turks visa-free travel to the EU's Schengen area by the end of June

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country has taken in the bulk of the asylum seekers so far, said on a visit to France she was "very happy" with progress in resolving the migrant crisis.

'Shame on you'

The small group of protesters in Mytilene chanted "EU - shame on you".

One million migrants and refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece since early last year.

The returns arrangement has alarmed rights groups, who say Turkey is not a safe country for migrants.

Citizens of Pakistan make up the fourth-biggest group of undocumented migrants arriving in Greece this year, after Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis.

Migrant arrivals to Greece

152,137

in 2016, up to 4 April

• 37% of 2016 arrivals are children
• 53% arrive on Lesbos
• 366 died on Turkey-Greece route
• 853,650 arrivals in 2015

Source: IOM

Getty Images

In the first three months of the year, 5,317 Pakistanis entered the country. Some of them are reported to have started a hunger strike at Moria camp on Lesbos.

"We risked our lives to come here, we don't want to go back to Turkey because they are going to send us back to Pakistan," one man. who called himself Ali, told AFP news agency.

"We don't want to apply for asylum in Greece, we want to go to Germany."

According to Amnesty International, people detained on Lesbos and another island, Chios, have virtually no access to legal aid, and limited access to services and support.

Migrant arrivals in Greece by sea from Turkey have dropped sharply, from a couple of thousand per day early last month to the hundreds this month, data from the International Organization for Migration show.

Meanwhile, some 11,000 migrants remain camped at Greece's border with Macedonia, prevented from heading northwards to other EU states.