As the first groups were transferred back to Turkey, still more people arrived at the Greek islands. Turkish president Erdogan has sharply criticised European Union countries' response to the humanitarian crisis engulfing the continent...
With a police helicopter hovering overhead and flanked by two coastguard vessels, the first passenger boats have arrived from Lesbos and Chios in the Turkish town of Dikili. Most of the 202 people on board were Pakistani, but many also came from Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Morocco.
The group was transferred under a new deal between the European Union and Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of migrants and refugees into Europe. EU authorities say none of those deported so far had requested asylum in Greece and all had left voluntarily.
But as the first groups were transferred back to Turkey, still more people arrived at the Greek islands. Greece's coastguard rescued more than 170 people off the coast of Lesbos, many of them unaware they could be sent back.
Meanwhile, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the EU, saying it is his country that has embraced three million Syrians despite being financially worse off than others.
"They put up barbed wires for not letting these people in their countries. It is known how many people died in the Aegean Sea, but the number of people we rescued in the Aegean Sea is 100,000. We picked them up with our coastguard boats, and we continue to do so", Erdogan said.
Under the deal, for each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the European Union will take another Syrian who has made a legitimate claim. The first 32 Syrian refugees have now arrived in Hanover, Germany, on two flights from Istanbul.
