The Greek port city of Piraeus received 465 migrants on Saturday, as the clock ticks down on the pending implementation of an EU-brokered deal to send back asylum seekers arriving by boats from Turkey, dpa quoted the coastguard as saying. The migrants had reached the Greek islands via the Aegean Sea. Another 30 people were expected to be ferried from these islands to mainland Greece later in the afternoon. Time is running out for so-called irregular migrants in Turkey planning to reach the European Union by the main sea route, which a deal struck on Friday between the bloc and Ankara seeks to close. Turkey and the EU declared that those arriving on Greek shores can expect to be returned to Turkey as of Sunday. The controversial deal hinges on a one-for-one swap of Syrian migrants, with the EU promising to resettle the same number of Syrians living in Turkey, up to a limit of 72,000.
