MYTILENE, Greece — Standing on the southern coastline of the island of Lesbos, Molhim Zreiki peered through binoculars across the narrow strait of the Aegean Sea dividing Greece from Turkey. During the past nine months, hundreds of thousands of refugees had crossed these waters on smuggler rafts to reach Europe. But how many rafts reached Lesbos on Monday morning?
“None,” said Mr. Zreiki, one of the volunteers who have patrolled the beaches for months to help refugees as they came ashore. The Greek Coast Guard did pick up two rafts near Lesbos early Monday and brought the 56 people aboard to the island, according to the local police. By comparison, in October an average of 4,400 refugees landed on the island every day.
“None,” said Mr. Zreiki, one of the volunteers who have patrolled the beaches for months to help refugees as they came ashore. The Greek Coast Guard did pick up two rafts near Lesbos early Monday and brought the 56 people aboard to the island, according to the local police. By comparison, in October an average of 4,400 refugees landed on the island every day.
For the European Union, the paramount goal of last week’s much-criticized refugee deal with Turkey was to shut off the enormous flow of people pouring in to the Continent and break the smuggling rings targeting Greece. By insisting that people coming into Greece will be deported back to Turkey, European Union officials say, they are trying to dissuade Syrians and other migrants from taking the smuggler boats in the first place. They hope Syrians will instead decide to stay in Turkey and apply for European asylum from there.
Yet many officials and migration experts warn that most migrants are fleeing war from countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and that they will simply find other routes into Europe, with the aid of smugglers in any case. Italy is already preparing for the likelihood of a higher influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. Other experts say refugees could try to enter Europe from the east, or elsewhere.
But at least here on Lesbos, 48 hours after the deal went into effect, the number of refugees landing seemed to be slowing, though the figures were still being tabulated. Sunday brought more than 1,500 new refugees to the Greek isles, but early tallies suggested that the figure might have dropped to just a few hundred on Monday.
“The numbers show a significant decrease, but it’s too early to draw clear conclusions,” said Giorgos Kyritsis, the government spokesman for migration policy.
Indeed, even as the situation at sea remained uncertain, Greek officials on Monday were still confronted with widespread confusion about how the new refugee deal will be administered on land. Under the agreement, Greece is expected to detain refugees arriving by boat and return many of them to Turkey. The European Union will then accept a certain number of Syrian refugees from camps in Turkey. Greek officials also must address the status of the more than 50,000 refugees who are exempted from the new agreement because they were already stranded inside the country. But sifting and assisting those people have created parallel challenges for a Greek state already battered by years of economic crisis. The migrants already inside the country must be sheltered and fed for a considerable period, possibly years, until their futures are sorted out. Many are now living in squalid tent cities — most infamously at the Idomeni crossing on the Macedonian border — and must be moved to government camps. On Monday evening, Yiannis Mouzalas, the country’s deputy migration minister, said Idomeni would be emptied within a month.
At the same time, the government must rapidly prepare for the arrival of new refugees on the islands, given that most experts expect the flow to increase again as the weather grows warmer, despite last week’s agreement.
Even with help from other European countries, the Greek government will struggle to process and detain the newly arriving refugees while also setting up a large-scale system for deportations back to Turkey that meets legal scrutiny. Deportations are scheduled to begin around April 4.
“We have to make an uphill effort because implementation of this agreement will not be an easy issue,” the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said on Monday. He met with Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Union migration commissioner. Officials with the United Nations, as well as many migration experts and human rights advocates, have already expressed concerns about the deal. Some argue that it violates the legal rights of refugees under international law. Others say the rush to start sending people back to Turkey is placing a tremendous strain on Greece.
“We feel it is being implemented prematurely,” said Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesman on Lesbos for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Our main concern is the Greek government doesn’t have the capacity to assess massive numbers of cases.” Amid the uncertainty, migrants across the country were groping for answers on Monday. At the port of Piraeus, near Athens, thousands of refugees wandered in a state of confusion about their future. Piraeus now has refugees sleeping in passenger waiting rooms or in tents outdoors. With no processing or information centers on site, rumors abounded, as did anxiety, among people who had hoped to reach Germany.
“People are asking me for information about what to do,” said Yousif Karoija, 30, a pharmacist from Aleppo, Syria, who has been in Greece for nearly a month. “I tell them: Wait one to two weeks to see what happens.” Mr. Karoija’s wife and daughter died when bombs struck their home in Aleppo. He once hoped to reach Germany, but he is now thinking of applying for asylum in Greece and looking for work as a pharmacist or a translator to help resettling migrants. Fluent in English, and having already picked up some Greek, Mr. Karoija said he still had not figured out how to enter the asylum process.
Yet many officials and migration experts warn that most migrants are fleeing war from countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and that they will simply find other routes into Europe, with the aid of smugglers in any case. Italy is already preparing for the likelihood of a higher influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. Other experts say refugees could try to enter Europe from the east, or elsewhere.
But at least here on Lesbos, 48 hours after the deal went into effect, the number of refugees landing seemed to be slowing, though the figures were still being tabulated. Sunday brought more than 1,500 new refugees to the Greek isles, but early tallies suggested that the figure might have dropped to just a few hundred on Monday.
“The numbers show a significant decrease, but it’s too early to draw clear conclusions,” said Giorgos Kyritsis, the government spokesman for migration policy.
Indeed, even as the situation at sea remained uncertain, Greek officials on Monday were still confronted with widespread confusion about how the new refugee deal will be administered on land. Under the agreement, Greece is expected to detain refugees arriving by boat and return many of them to Turkey. The European Union will then accept a certain number of Syrian refugees from camps in Turkey. Greek officials also must address the status of the more than 50,000 refugees who are exempted from the new agreement because they were already stranded inside the country. But sifting and assisting those people have created parallel challenges for a Greek state already battered by years of economic crisis. The migrants already inside the country must be sheltered and fed for a considerable period, possibly years, until their futures are sorted out. Many are now living in squalid tent cities — most infamously at the Idomeni crossing on the Macedonian border — and must be moved to government camps. On Monday evening, Yiannis Mouzalas, the country’s deputy migration minister, said Idomeni would be emptied within a month.
At the same time, the government must rapidly prepare for the arrival of new refugees on the islands, given that most experts expect the flow to increase again as the weather grows warmer, despite last week’s agreement.
Even with help from other European countries, the Greek government will struggle to process and detain the newly arriving refugees while also setting up a large-scale system for deportations back to Turkey that meets legal scrutiny. Deportations are scheduled to begin around April 4.
“We have to make an uphill effort because implementation of this agreement will not be an easy issue,” the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said on Monday. He met with Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Union migration commissioner. Officials with the United Nations, as well as many migration experts and human rights advocates, have already expressed concerns about the deal. Some argue that it violates the legal rights of refugees under international law. Others say the rush to start sending people back to Turkey is placing a tremendous strain on Greece.
“We feel it is being implemented prematurely,” said Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesman on Lesbos for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Our main concern is the Greek government doesn’t have the capacity to assess massive numbers of cases.” Amid the uncertainty, migrants across the country were groping for answers on Monday. At the port of Piraeus, near Athens, thousands of refugees wandered in a state of confusion about their future. Piraeus now has refugees sleeping in passenger waiting rooms or in tents outdoors. With no processing or information centers on site, rumors abounded, as did anxiety, among people who had hoped to reach Germany.
“People are asking me for information about what to do,” said Yousif Karoija, 30, a pharmacist from Aleppo, Syria, who has been in Greece for nearly a month. “I tell them: Wait one to two weeks to see what happens.” Mr. Karoija’s wife and daughter died when bombs struck their home in Aleppo. He once hoped to reach Germany, but he is now thinking of applying for asylum in Greece and looking for work as a pharmacist or a translator to help resettling migrants. Fluent in English, and having already picked up some Greek, Mr. Karoija said he still had not figured out how to enter the asylum process.
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