Greece returns 12 Syrians to Turkey

A migrant boy pushes a stroller as a man sits next to a tent at a makeshift camp at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Greek police on Wednesday handed out flyers to migrants and refugees at Idomeni, asking them to leave the camps and use other facilities. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (The Associated Press)

prev next

A child holds flyers delivered by Greek police at a makeshift camp at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Greek police delivered Wednesday to migrants and refugees gathered in Idomeni flyers asking them to leave the camp for temporary receptions and other facilities. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (The Associated Press)

A wooden frame used to screen movies stands at a makeshift camp in the northern border point of Idomeni, Greece, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Greek police on Wednesday handed out flyers to migrants and refugees in Idomeni, asking them to leave the camps and use other facilities. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (The Associated Press)

ATHENS, Greece – Greece says it has returned 12 Syrians, including a woman and her four children, to Turkey as part of a European Union-Turkey agreement aiming to stop the flow of refugees and migrants across the Aegean to Europe's more prosperous heartland.

The 12 were flown from the Greek island of Lesbos to Adana in Turkey Wednesday by a plane chartered by the European border agency Frontex, Greece's citizens' protection ministry said, noting all had expressed the wish to return and none had applied for asylum in Greece.

Under last month's EU-Turkey deal, people arriving clandestinely on Greek islands from Turkey from March 20 onwards face being returned unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece. So far, 386 people have been returned under the deal, Greece says.