ATHENS (AFP) -
Six migrants
who were fed up with being stuck on the Greek Island of Chios tried to
make their way back to Turkey -- by swimming, Greek harbour police said
on Wednesday.
Two groups of swimmers were picked up on Monday and
Tuesday, several hundred metres (yards) off the coast of Chios, police
said. The Turkish coastline, just nine nautical miles away, is visible
from the island.
Like hundreds of thousands of people before
them, they had reached Chios by crossing the same stretch of water on
makeshift boats, often overloaded with desperate people.
The
first group included four Iraqis who tried to swim back by clinging onto
a rubber ring. It was not immediately clear who was in the second
group.
Under terms of a controversial March 20 agreement between
Brussels and Ankara aimed at easing the migrant crisis, all "irregular
migrants" arriving on the Greek islands face the prospect of being
deported to Turkey. The aim is to discourage people from making the
perilous Aegean crossing.
According to the Ethnos daily, they
were among those slated for deportation and had hoped that by making
their own way back, they could arrive incognito, thereby avoiding
detention by the Turkish authorities on their return.
So far, more than 300 people have been sent back, with rights groups saying their fate was unclear.
There
are currently 8,400 migrants on the Greek islands, officials said
Wednesday, most of whom are waiting for their asylum applications to be
processed.
New arrivals are confined to camps for 25 days, after which they are allowed out but cannot leave the islands.
Separately
there are another 45,000 migrants and refugees who arrived in Greece
before the March 20 deadline who have been stuck since the Balkans state
began closing their borders in mid-February.
© 2016 AFP
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