“They even took the milk, the children’s milk from them.”
The respondent had been pushed back three times from Greece to Turkey.
The respondent described the commandos as follows;They were wearing black uniforms with black masks. They had their guns as well. With badges on their shoulders and on their chests. They had written on their shoulders and on their chests. But he could not read it because it was a different language. But the people who were with them guessed they were the commando’s. White badges. He could not understand, or - which colour exactly because he did not allow him to look at them. But he just could see the white colour of the badges. He doesn’t remember the shape of the badges. He could not look and he doesn’t remember, because he was so scared that they would hurt his family. So he was just looking down and afraid to raise his head because they were pointing guns to them. How many; More than 15 members, and with two ladies were with them. The ladies;They were wearing the same uniforms but without masks. They were checking the women. The police were with the car, the pickup car, they were without mask. And those two ladies. The others were with masks. The military members were with masks as well, they were standing at the river waiting for them.. Black masks as well, only the eyes they could see.
At the point when they got caught, they got checked (a body check). This was at the train station.
They were taken there from Orestiada, that is where the train station was, to Dematiko.
They took them to the river, and they took their stuff, their bags, their shoes, and documents and their clothes and they were telling them to please give them back their bags. They had money inside their bags. They even took the milk, the children’s milk from them. When they asked them not to take their stuff they began insulting them, and some of them tried to beat them with sticks in their hands. And they did not know what they were telling them but some of them had a little knowledge of Greek. They knew that they were insulting them. He has only one word stuck in mind – which was malaka pushki. Which means a bad word.
The respondent was hit with an iron stick. This happened when they took his stuff, he told them to give him the money at least. They were screaming and hitting him. He tried to hit back, but his friend held him and told him to be wise. They burned all the bags, more than 30 bags, all at once. The respondent lost the following documents; Marriage contract. Passport. Telephones. Ipads. Our IDs. a marriage certificate. The passport was real. Iraqian original passport.
They were at the riverside for more than 3 hours. It was at 4 pm that it happened. At daylight.
During his first pushback The policemen asked them why are you here? They told them that they had escaped from their country because they have problems. And they are being threatened. He told them that it is ok, and they put them in the car. And they drove them back to the point where the river was. It was on the 3rd time they only had the chance to talk with them because they were a little nice with them. But for the 1st and 2nd time they did not allow them to talk at all.
During the respondents third pushback, they had first walked for more than 6 hours from the river before they got to Orestiada. In Orestiada they got caught by the police. They were at the train station. They got caught there. There were two pickups and six police members. He is not sure, but he saw six members. Two were the drivers, and four policemen came over to them.
They were wearing uniforms the colour black, light black, black with mixed blue. They also had guns.
They spoke to the group in Greek. They told them – ‘ela ela’ and ‘no problem’. That is all they needed to understand. There were 35 people in their group. They did not put them in the pickup. They told them to wait. They checked them (body check) at the pickup and then they called for the big military van. Then the van came , and they put them all in that big closed military van.
They were driving for about one hour. Until they arrived at the prison.They had to wait for about 20 minutes. They told them to wait, they took their bags and then 20 minutes later they arrived. Yes, that prison was also full. From that prison, they were walking from the prison to that river for about 10 minutes.
The first time they took only the phones, but they got the phones back. And the first time they did not have the chance to arrive at the train station. They saw the train station but they got caught before. The second time they only took the phones. They saw that they had money, but they took only the phones. They could keep their shoes and clothes on. Only the third time they took their clothes.
The first time – it was the Greek military. They were the ones who brought them by boat to the other side of the river. And they were the only ones who were present at the river when they were brought there. The second time – it was also the Greek military.
During the second pushback; They arrived in Greece in the morning, they walked across the night. Then they got caught, they brought them to the river, and brought them to the other side. That second time they drove them directly to the river, did not bring them to the prison but directly to the river and pushed them back. He is not sure at what time but it was in the morning. It was also daylight. The people who caught them the second time were military. That second time he did not see any Greek police, only Greek military. They were not wearing any masks.
Each time, They had food, they had water, they took the food and water from them. Everything they took from them.
The respondents wife was pregnant during these push back encounters. She was not allowed to drink anything or to eat anything. They touched her, to make sure that his wife was pregnant. And they only allowed her to have a good place in the van to sit. These were men who touched his wife. Yes, they touched her to make sure that she was pregnant. They helped her to get into the van, she was the first one to enter, and they told the other to not bother her. This happened the second time.
They asked where they were from. They said that they are Kurdish, people from Iraq. They said: Kurdish, go Turkey. Kurdish, go Turkey. Just to scare them.