ATHENS, Greece -- The United Nations refugee agency pulled staff members Tuesday from facilities on Lesbos and other Greek islands being used to detain refugees and migrants, as an international deal with Turkey came under further strain.
Greece began arresting everyone arriving in boats from Turkey after the agreement went into effect Sunday. They are being held at European Union-supervised registration centers known as "hot spots" in what Greek government officials describe as "compulsory supervision."
Under the deal, detained migrants will be sent back to Turkey, which in return will receive additional EU financial aid and join an EU resettlement program for Syrians and others fleeing war.
"The UNHCR is concerned that the EU-Turkey deal is being implemented before the required safeguards are in place in Greece," Melissa Fleming, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva. Fleming said the refugee agency opposes mandatory detention.
"Greece does not have sufficient capacity on the islands for assessing asylum claims, nor the proper conditions to accommodate people decently and safely pending an examination of their cases," she said.
About 2,000 people have been detained since the deal took effect, with migrants still arriving in boats despite the crackdown.
"Clearly we do not believe that, so far, Turkey has implemented what has been agreed. Migration flows are not significantly lower ... that should have happened immediately," government spokesman Olga Gerovasili said.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, she said, called German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday and urged her to press Turkey to crack down on those who smuggle migrants into Europe.
Gerovasili said full implementation of the agreement would require about 10 days of preparation.
More than 50,000 migrants are stranded in Greece, with many still camped out at the closed Greek-Macedonian border, where protests continued for a third day.
One protester, a Syrian man, set himself on fire during the protest. He was hospitalized with burns to his upper body, doctors said.
About 12,000 migrants remain outside the border village of Idomeni despite an appeal by the Greek government to move to nearby army-built shelters.
Late Tuesday, the humanitarian group Doctors of the World said it was pulling out of Idomeni because of concerns for its workers as tensions rise at the camp.
"We left because we felt threatened," said Antonis Rigas, a Doctors of the World official.
Greek state TV has begun running short bulletins in Arabic for migrants, urging them to leave the border camp.
Information for this article was contributed by Costas Kantouris of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/23/2016