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Activists Try To Stop Boat Deporting Migrants

Protesters jump into the water and cling on to the chain of the anchor as they try to stop the boat taking the migrants to Turkey.
Greek Coast Guard officers in a speedboat approach activists hanging from the anchor's chain of a Turkish-flagged passenger boat carrying migrants to be returned to Turkey, in an attempt to prevent it from leaving the port of Mytilene, on island of LesbosProtesters have tried to prevent another group of migrants being deported by ferry from Greece to Turkey.

Four demonstrators jumped into the water and two of them hung on to the chain of the anchor of the ferry in an attempt to stop it leaving.

They were fished out of the water and detained by the coast guard.


The boat carrying 45 Pakistanis then left the Lesbos port of Mytilene for Izmir in Turkey. A second boat with 79 migrants on board followed a short time later.

It was the second group of migrants deported from Greece to be sent back to in Turkey as part of an EU deal to cut the numbers reaching Europe.

A first group of around 200 migrants, mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan, were sent back to Turkey on Monday.

The process was then suspended temporarily when asylum applications surged in Greece.

Under the deal with the EU, Turkey is supposed to take back all migrants and refugees who enter Greece illegally, including Syrians.

In return, the EU is taking in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey, and giving Turkey money, early visa-free travel and progress in talks over its EU membership.

Activists say the deal runs roughshod over human rights, and they stood at the gates of the Turkish port of Dikili in Izmir, blowing whistles and banging on metal barriers in protest.

Greek authorities said 149 migrants had arrived in the past 24 hours on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Samos and Chios.

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