More than 1,600 migrants have landed in Greece since a landmark EU-Turkish deal

More than 1,600 migrants have landed in Greece since a landmark EU-Turkish deal on curbing the influx took effect, officials said on Monday, highlighting the challenges still facing efforts to tackle the crisis.

The EU and Ankara struck a deal aiming to cut off the sea crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands that enabled 850,000 people to pour into Europe last year, many of them fleeing conflict in Syria.

The deal, under which all migrants landing on the Greek islands face being sent back to Turkey, went into effect early on Sunday.

But the influx has continued, according to the SOMP agency, which is coordinating Athens’ response to the crisis.

Since the agreement took effect, 1,662 migrants have landed in Greece, SOMP said, including 830 on Chios and 698 on Lesbos, two islands in the northeast Aegean which lie close to Turkey, SOMP said.The continuing flow “creates a problem, and raises questions about the intent of all parties” in the agreement, SOMP spokesman Giorgos Kyritsis said.

The Turkish coastguard said it had intercepted 126 migrants trying to cross to Greece since Saturday, without saying how many had been after the deal came into force.

Officials have said it will take time to start sending people back, as Greece is still waiting for thousands of European staff needed to take on the daunting task of mass repatriation.

The EU’s migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who is Greek, on Monday said putting the deal into action “puts great pressure on our country”.

“But the country is getting into action... the reaction is positive,” he said as he met Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for talks in Athens.

To help coordination, eight Turkish coastguard observers arrived on Monday on Lesbos, Greek state TV reported, while another 25 Turkish immigration officials will be dispatched to five Aegean islands — Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos — Greek authorities announced.

Under Friday’s deal, for every Syrian sent back, the European Union will resettle one Syrian from Turkey, which is hosting nearly three million people who have fled Syria’s five-year civil war.

The idea is to reduce the incentive for Syrian refugees to board dangerous smugglers’ boats to cross to Greece, encouraging them instead to stay in Turkish refugee camps to win a chance at resettlement in Europe.

The EU will also speed up talks on Ankara’s bid to join the 28-nation bloc, will double refugee aid to six billion euros ($6.8 billion), and give visa-free travel to Turks in Europe’s Schengen passport-free zone by June.

The deal also plans major aid for Greece, a country now struggling not only with a debt crisis but with some 47,500 migrants stranded on its territory. All new arrivals in Greece are being taken to registration centres set up on five Aegean islands. Those seeking asylum will stay there while their application is considered by Greek and European officials, under the deal.

This makes it all the more important that sea arrivals slow, otherwise the islands risk being overwhelmed by the numbers.

The UN refugee agency said Monday it will no longer transfer newly-arrived migrants on Lesbos to the Moria camp — visited last week by Hollywood star and UNHCR envoy Angelina Jolie — after Greece began to confine them to the facility as the landmark EU-Turkey deal came into force.