“The kids were crying and afraid that they would be thrown back in the river.”
The respondent crossed the river from Turkey into Greece around the 21st of January. The Turkish invasion in Afrin, his hometown, had just started. His family and his sister had been lucky, they had been pushed back only once. His brother in law was less fortunate. The second time they got separated from his brother-in-law and he is now back in Syria again.
That first time, they traveled with two families: his four young boys, his wife, and his sisters family, including her children. All were from Syria. At 4 pm they left Istanbul heading to Edirne, a border village in Turkey. It was so cold that they had to wait in Edirne for three days, because the weather conditions did not allow them to cross the river.
At a certain point, they had the chance to cross. Once they arrived at the other side of the river, they were caught by police dressed in military uniforms. It was dark, sometime after midnight. They were surrounded by woods and there was one big hill. He doesn’t remember any details - only that the police came from the woods like ghosts. They had to take a deep breath – and the police started terrifying them, scaring the children. Him and the others in his group, could not focus on anything else other than their appearance. They turned around to go back to the river. The woods and the hills, that is all he remembers. He did not know who they were, he could only see that they were wearing military uniforms. They must have been waiting for them to cross the river, to catch them and other refugees. He did not see any cars, but they might have been hidden behind the hill. As soon as they arrived, the police were standing at the side of the river to [taking their arrests - literally] catching them and other refugees. They may not have been even 20 minutes on the Greek side of the river bank. Not more than half an hour in total, and then it happened.
They used the same boat to return them to Turkey as the one that they had come with. A small boat for just 8 persons. The military officers used police batons to get them back to the other side of the river. One the one boat there was– his 4 kids, the 4 kids of his sister, his sister, him and his mother. They scared them by screaming – not by using violence.
He calls them the “commando’s”special security forces in military uniform. He met them right after they had crossed the river. There were around six of them, maybe more. They had rubber sticks/batons in their hands. He saw the sticks/batons, but could not see any other weapon. Their faces were covered with black masks, they had firm postures, and by their costumes and head covers he presumes they were special forces. They were wearing green military camouflage uniforms, the usual ones with some brown. He actually saw an EU flag on their shoulders. That is, as it was night dark he is not completely sure, but it was a blue emblem with yellow stars. That emblem, certainly, was not black or dark green.
The black masks were similar to what ninja would wear: covering the nose, mouth, and every other part of their faces but their eyes. Some of the men were not wearing masks. He could see their faces, but not well: they were screaming to them, only screaming and telling them to look down so they would not be able to identify them. But he could not really understand because it was in English. They yelled, but other than that none of those men spoke to them, asked them anything or gave them the opportunity to speak. They were terrified, so they tried to keep silent and looked down to the ground. The kids were crying and afraid that they would be thrown back in the river.
In English, these men screamed to them “go back, go back”. Just to go back. Among themselves they were speaking in a different language, their own language, but as he did not understand well and they barely had the chance to listen, he could not tell what language it was. And his English is too poor to judge the type of accent in which their English was spoken.
That first time, they did not take anything from them, they could keep even their telephones. His phone had an internet connection, but the smuggler had told them to keep their phones turned off until their first orientation point, one village much further away from the river, in order to not be caught. So there, at the Greek side of the river border, they did not have the chance to trace his phone with their exact location.
Once they got back to Turkey, they spent a few hours in Erdine, in a camp. They could not say that they were from Syria. As the invasion in Afrin had just started, they were too afraid to say they were Syrian and instead told the Turkish army that they were Palestinian. This was upon the advice of the smuggler. Then they went back to Istanbul, where they spent a couple of months before they made a second attempt.
That second time they tried to make the crossing, was 20th of April this year. The smuggler, who was organizing their trip, had split them up in Istanbul in two groups, because the car of the smuggler was too small to take them all in one. His sister and her children, and his mother, his wife, their children and him– were in the first group. His brother-in-law, together with his brother, the family of his brother and some friends, travelled with that second group. That time they made their crossing from another village near Erdine. The two families succeeded to cross the river with the boat and they managed to arrive in Orestiada after a very difficult walk of 15 hours. As result of his wife’s medical situation she has strong sight problems – when it is dark she can not see, and she needs to take a hand to lead her. The children were crying, he was carrying his son, who has breathing problems due to asthma, and his mother was sick. It was a long, and very difficult walk. But they arrived in Orestiada where they met the police. They sought shelter in a church, and when the police entered he lied – he kissed the flag that fell down from the cross to show mercy. His brother-in-law, and a few friends of his, were this time less fortunate. While they managed to escape from meeting the police, he was caught and pushed back to the other side of the river.