(VOVworld)- Greece will not be able to start sending refugees back to Turkey from Sunday, the government said, as the country struggles to implement a key deal aimed at easing Europe’s migrant crisis.

A family sits by their tents near the village of Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border- Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP

Under the agreement clinched between Brussels and Ankara last week, migrants who reach the Greek islands will be deported back to Turkey. For every Syrian returned, the EU will resettle one from a Turkish refugee camp. The deal aims to strangle the main route used by migrants travelling to the EU and discourage people smugglers, but it has faced criticism from rights groups and thousands took to the streets of Europe in protest. Greek premier Alexis Tsipras told his ministers on Saturday afternoon to be ready to begin deporting people the following day, as agreed, but officials said afterwards they needed more time to prepare. “The agreement to send back new arrivals on the islands should, according to the text, enter into force on March 20,” the government coordinator for migration policy spokesman Giorgos Kyritsis said. “But a plan like this cannot be put in place in only 24 hours.”, he said.