Turkey received more migrants from Greece as part of a deal with the European Union while it intercepted migrants from an unusual route, Italy, on Thursday and Friday.
A hub of migrants due to its proximity to European Union countries and favorable environment compared to rest of the Middle East, Turkey struggles to balance humanitarian concerns and the influx of refugees.
In the early hours of Friday, coast guard in Çeşme, a western vacation resort on the shores of Aegean Sea, stopped a suspicious yacht and discovered 51 Syrian migrants. The migrants said in their testimony that they were heading to Italy, hundreds of kilometers away from Greek islands that lies only a few miles from Turkish coast, a favorite destination for migrants. In another unusual instance of human smuggling, authorities discovered that the yacht's captain and his mate were a Russian and a Belarussian national. The two men were detained on smuggling charges while the migrants were sent to a refugee center. Security forces found a large cache of food, water and fuel aboard the yacht.
Elsewhere in Izmir, some 60 Syrian migrants were received by Turkish authorities on the Dikili coast where they arrived from the Lesbos island of Greece on Friday, one day after 14 Syrians were flown to Adana in the southern Turkey from Greek island of Kos. Migrants were sent back to Turkey as part of a deal between Ankara and Brussels in March that aims to stop human smuggling across the Aegean Sea in dinghies. It stipulates the return of "irregular migrants" to Turkey from Greece in exchange for the relocation of Syrian refugees in Turkey to European Union countries. The latest arrivals brought the number of migrants sent to Turkey to 772.
On the other hand, Greece has been warned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on alleged denial of asylum for migrants. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said on Friday that they were seriously concerned by "the illegal return of Syrian nationals from Greece to Turkey." Edwards said they learned that 91 people arrived on the island of Milos on Oct.14 and they sought asylum in Greece after their transfer to island of Leros, but 10 Syrian nationals among them were sent to Turkey "without due consideration of their asylum claims."
