Turkey will take about 200 "irregular" migrants from Greek islands, a government official said today, after it intensified efforts this week to shut down a main smuggling route used by people fleeing war and poverty to reach Europe.
Turkey has agreed a deal with the European Union to take back all migrants and refugees who cross the Aegean to enter Greece illegally.
In return, the European Union will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with money, visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership regulations.
Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in parliament that the deal will "prevent the Aegean Sea being turned into a cemetery for migrants."
The pact has been criticised by the United Nations, aid organisations and human rights groups. It has been cast as inhumane, questioned its legality, and argues Turkey is not a safe country for refugees.
Several dozen migrants being detained at a holding camp on the Greek island of Lesbos protested behind the barbed wire fence of the compound on Tuesday, shouting "We want freedom!"
They were among thousands of refugees and migrants who have arrived on Lesbos on or since 20 March from Turkey and who are being held until their asylum requests are processed and they are accepted or sent back under the deal.
Two Turkish passenger boats carrying 136 mostly Pakistani migrants arrived from the island of Lesbos in the Turkish town of Dikili yesterday, the day the deal went into effect.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said 78 Syrian refugees were sent to Germany yesterday.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has stopped transporting arrivals to and from the Moria camp on Lesbos, initially set up to register arrivals but which has since become what it calls a "detention centre".
On the wall of the sprawling gated complex, which was once an army camp, graffiti read: 'No one is illegal'.
UNHCR says there are some 600 people above capacity at Moria. Other aid groups have also pulled out from the site in protest at conditions there.
