Last refugees leave Greek islands ahead of EU clampdown

Sunday was D-Day for thousands of refugees and migrants crowding the Aegean island of Lesbos – their final chance to depart for Athens and the hope of eventual resettlement in northern Europe.

A ferry steamed out of the island’s Mytilini port at midday with 2,000 passengers, making way for a second, smaller vessel that would leave later with 600 people aboard.

“I think we’re among the last fortunate ones,” said Mohammad Saban, a student from Aleppo booked to leave with 11 family members.

But for those who follow – even by a matter of hours – the future may be less hopeful. At midnight on Sunday the audacious plan agreed by the EU and Turkey to try to resolve the migrant crisis came into effect. Any irregular migrants arriving from now on will – however harrowing their journeys – be sent back to Turkey.

Even before the plan came into action there was widespread suspicion that it would never work and that it places impossible logistical demands on Greece, a nation weakened by a protracted financial crisis.

Still, on Sunday Greek officials were working feverishly to clear Lesbos of a backlog of some 5,000 migrants before midnight, while readying the bureaucratic machinery to process new arrivals and send them back across the Aegean.

Asylum officers

Some 4,000 EU specialist staff are being assigned to strengthen Greece’s creaking asylum service. France and Germany alone are sending 500 asylum officers to islands targeted by people smugglers operating from Turkey.

Athens is also seeking extra security officers, translators and judges. The aim is to process up to 600 people a day.

Yet confusion about the deal appeared widespread on Lesbos, the smugglers’ preferred destination. It has hosted close to half the 1 million people who have crossed to the Greek islands since January last year.

“It’s quite frustrating not getting precise directions from Athens,” one official said.

The migrants were also working on scant information as they tried to make fateful decisions. At Kara Tepe, a reception centre run by local officials, Syrian refugees trapped on Lesbos for the past week were reluctant to make for the port in case the ferries were heading not for Athens but Kavalla in northern Greece.

“We’ve been hearing they’re going to bus people straight from Kavalla port to the Turkish border for immediate expulsion,” said a lawyer from Homs. “We’ve already been screened here and registered as refugees. We don’t want to take the risk of being thrown out.”

Others planned to travel to the northern border with Macedonia, which closed two weeks ago, hoping it would soon reopen, if only briefly.

Detention

For Greeks working on the front line with refugees, there is growing concern about the country’s changing role in the crisis. One official on Lesbos, where local authorities have co-operated with international charities to provide accommodation and services, said he was worried about having to detain new migrants.

“For months we’ve tried to ensure people were looked after in a way that respects Europe’s humanitarian values,” he said. “Detention is not a dignified way of treating refugees.”

Others suspect the agreement will fall apart as the weather improves, allowing for a repeat of last summer’s surge in smuggling activity.

– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016)