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THE MIGRANT crisis showed no sign of stopping yesterday as boats kept arriving on the Greek islands, hours after a deadline for deportations passed.
Greek officials admitted that they were not ready to begin processing arrivals, with none of the 2,300-strong taskforce the EU had promised on the island on the new regime's first day of operation.
Under a master plan drawn up in Brussels on Friday night, all migrants who arrived from midnight on Saturday were to be stopped from continuing their journeys to the Greek mainland.
Instead, they were to be detained, processed individually, have any appeals heard before a judge, and forcibly returned to Turkey to claim asylum there.
The operation is - in the words of Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission - herculean. And as of yesterday there was little sign of it coming to fruition.
Giorgos Kyritis, a spokesman for the Greek government's refugee crisis coordination centre, said none of the 2,300 experts promised by the EU had arrived.
While the deal "is in force," Mr Kyritis added, "its practical implementation remains to be seen". He also warned: "A plan like this cannot be put in place in only 24 hours."
A police source on Lesbos said: "We still don't know how the deal will be implemented in practice. Above all, we...