Protests held over plan to return migrants from Greece to Turkey

A plan to send back migrants from Greece to Turkey sparked demonstrations by local residents in both countries on Saturday, two days before the deal brokered by the European Union is set to be implemented.

At the same time, migrants stranded at a makeshift camp in this small town on Greece's border with Macedonia staged a protest demanding that the border be opened and that they be allowed to continue their journeys to central and northern Europe.

The migrants' continued presence led several dozen local residents to stage a protest Saturday morning. They blocked a road for about an hour to demand the evacuation of more than 11,000 stranded migrants to "transit centers" across the Greek mainland.