A ship carrying 600 asylum seekers has departed from Lesbos to a closed camp in northern Greece amid the coronavirus crisis.
The migrants arrived at the port of Mytilene in the Greek island of Lesbos, ahead of their departure with the ship, named 'Aqua Blue'.
Clashes broke out overnight on Greece's border with Turkey after approximately 500 migrants attempted to break down a border fence and enter Greece.The ferry boat is carrying asylum seekers to a mainland detention centre after around 600 arrived in recent days, following Turkey saying it would no longer stop migrants on its territory from heading towards Greece, prompting a crisis between the two regions.
Greek police said they used tear gas to repel the push to break down the fence south of the Kastanies border crossing. They said Turkish authorities also fired tear gas at the Greek border.An estimated 2,000 migrants are still camped on the Greek-Turkish border, weeks after Turkey declared its borders to Europe open and encouraged migrants and refugees living in the country to try crossing into European Union member Greece.
Tens of thousands of people headed to the border despite Greece's insistence that its eastern border, which is also the EU's external border, was shut.The move came after months of threats by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would open his borders and allow millions of refugees into Europe unless the EU provided more support for refugee care in Turkey.
The EU says it is adhering to a 2016 deal with Turkey under which it provides billions of euros in funds in return for Turkey caring for more than 3.5 million refugees from neighbouring Syria.
On Wednesday, Turkey said it was closing its six land and sea border crossings with Greece and Bulgaria in an effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, but a senior official said the measure did not amount to an end of the policy of not preventing migrants from leaving Turkey.
The borders were sealed to people and not the transportation of goods, the official added.
The violence on the border came hours after Mr Erdogan held a four-way video conference with the leaders of France, Germany and the UK to discuss the migrant crisis.
A statement from Mr Erdogan's office said the four leaders also discussed ways of resolving the Syria conflict and providing humanitarian aid in Syria's troubled Idlib province.Tuesday's teleconference between Mr Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Boris Johnson was arranged after the European leaders cancelled plans to travel to Istanbul over the coronavirus crisis.
The violence at the border has added to concerns in Athens over the high number of migrant arrivals from Turkey - at a rough average of 100 per day on the Greek islands so far this year - adding to severe overcrowding at refugee camps there.
Greek authorities on Wednesday imposed movement restrictions, lasting for at least a month, at the island camps as part of public safety measures for the coronavirus pandemic.
Migrants on Lesbos and four other islands will only be allowed to visit towns on the islands in small groups and for limited periods, the Migration Affairs Ministry said. The ministry said it was also speeding up plans to build detention facilities on the islands.
No infections have been confirmed at any of the camps, though the extent of testing remains unclear.
More than 9,300 people have reached Greece from Turkey so far this year - mostly arriving on the eastern islands - although the rate has slowed over the past week.
