Roundup: Refugee flow into Greece continues despite EU-Turkey agreement

The flow of refugees and migrants into Greece from the Turkish coasts continued on Monday, although the latest EU-Turkey agreement reached last Friday with the aim to stem the influx has started to implement.

At least 1,662 new arrivals were recorded by the Greek authorities from Sunday night to Monday afternoon, according to official data released by Greece's Refugees Crisis Management Mechanism.

"The continuing flow raises the question whether all parties intend to meet their commitments under the deal," the coordinating body's spokesman Yorgos Kyritsis told local media in Athens.

One day after the EU-Turkey deal came into effect, a total of 50,000 refugees and migrants were stranded in Greece, according to the body's latest figures, following the border closures along the main route through the Balkans in February.

Some 13,000 were at the Idomeni makeshift camp close to the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

An additional 31,000 were in northern and central Greece, approximately 13,500 in Athens, Piraeus port and their suburbs and some 5,500 on the Aegean Sea islands.

Approximately 3,500 refugees were expected to reach Piraeus and Eleysis port near Athens on Monday from Chios and Lesvos islands.

Under the deal sealed last Friday, all refugees and migrants who had landed on Greek shores will be transferred in accommodation camps in the mainland to await relocation to other European countries.

All new irregular arrivals will not be allowed to travel to the mainland, but will be screened at hotspots in the Greek islands and go through an asylum process there.

Should their applications fail, they will be sent back to Turkey since April 4.

On the same date, under the agreement, the resettlement of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey to other European countries should start.

"We now have to climb an uphill, because the implementation of the agreement will not be an easy task," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday when welcoming EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos.

Tsipras said debt-laden Greece does not have the adequate personnel, including security and migration officials as well as interpreters, to process the asylum applications quickly.

Last week, European partners pledged that some 2,300 experts would be sent to Greece to assist in the procedures.

On Monday, Avramopoulos underlined that other EU members will support Greece to ensure the success of the new resettlement program.

More than 1 million people crossed the Aegean Sea to Greece from Turkey since the start of 2015 and continued their journey to central and northern European countries. Endit