Migrant swap starts between Turkey, EU

A Frontex officer (L) escorts a migrant as he boards on a Turkish-flagged passenger boat to be returned to Turkey, on the Greek island of Lesbos, April 4, 2016. REUTERS photo

A first Syrians arrived in Germany from Istanbul April 4, while a first group of migrants arrived in Turkey from Greece on the same day under an EU-Turkey migrant deal aimed at stopping the influx of refugees into Europe.

As the sun rose over the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios, 202 migrants, mainly from Pakistan and Bangladesh, were ferried back across the Aegean Sea, retracing the perilous journey they took on rickety boats in their desperation to reach Europe.

Yorgos Kyritsis, the Greek government's migration spokesman, said 136 migrants had left from Lesbos and 66 from Chios.

"These are migrants who did not request asylum in Greece. The majority were Pakistani. There were two Syrians who did not request asylum for personal reasons," Kyritsis was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

A few dozen police and immigration officials waited outside a small white tent on the quayside in the coastal Trukish Dikili town as the migrants began to disembark behind security fencing following the short crossing.

About a dozen people stood at the port holding a banner that read "Welcome refugees. Turkey is your home."
Meanwhile, the 32 Syrian asylum seekers flew into the northern German city of Hannover on two separate flights and were to be taken to a shelter about 140 kilometers away.

The representative from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Corinna Wicher, asked reporters to respect the privacy of the asylum seekers, who were members of six families. An AFP reporter saw 10 children and an adolescent in a wheelchair among the two groups. 

"This is all very new, very difficult," Wicher said. "They have been travelling for a very long time." 

One protester also arrived to meet the...

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