izmir turkey used to be a thriving transit hub for migrants heading to europe now its mostly empty izmir journalcredittyler hicksthe new york timesapril 7 2016izmir turkey for more than a year the sinbad restaurant in basmane square was packed every day with hundreds of migrants from syria anxiously conferring with brokers to negotiate fees to reach europe through the perilous sea crossing from turkey to greecebut this week it was mostly empty six of its employees had been laid off and those who remained said they had taken a 50 percent pay cutall our clients were syrian and we lived off their tips said mohammed hajji 22 a waiter at the cafe this place used to be so packed you couldnt find a spot to put your feet now look his voice trailed off as he pointed to a row of empty tables and chairsuntil last month the warren of narrow streets surrounding basmane square made up a vibrant transit hub part of the multimilliondollar raft economy that arose around the business of moving hundreds of thousands of migrants into europe but now days after greece began sending migrants back to turkey under a contentious deal with the european union to curb the flow of migrants to europe the boom has turned to bustevery business in this square profited from the refugees and now theyve suddenly gone said kadir akinci the manager of a taxi company in the basmane neighborhood weve taken a 70 percent cut in profits those passengers were our livelihoodsmugglers once inundated with requests from desperate migrants meandered through cafes and teahouses looking for the stray refugee clothing stores still displayed mannequins donning life vests and inner tubes but sales were sparsetaxi drivers who had transferred thousands of passengers to isolated departure points hung around the square looking morose hotels that had been booked for months by smugglers now sat empty and arabic signs erected to appeal to syrians had mostly been removed from shop windowsunder the terms of the deal turkey will take back migrants who arrive in greece illegally while the european union will still admit thousands of syrian refugees and has pledged 68 billion in aid to improve conditions for migrants living in turkey also promised under the agreement is visafree travel to europe for turkish citizens and the reopening of negotiations in turkeys longstalled application for european union membershipturkeys prime minister ahmet davutoglu said on tuesday that by dissuading people from undertaking the dangerous crossing the arrangement would prevent the aegean sea from turning into a cemetery for migrants but rights groups have questioned the legality of the pactsince the deal went into effect on march 20 the influx of migrants into greece has fallen drastically from thousands of daily arrivals to a couple hundred even as smugglers continue to try to trick passengers into leaving the recent crackdown against them by the turkish authorities has pushed operations undergroundthe biggest problem is that when the syrians came here the turks moved away