“According to the respondent they were not allowed to get down from the vehicle when more people were being forcefully put into the vehicle and he termed the behavior of the authorities inhuman as they were beating people to get inside the vehicle despite the fact there was not enough room available.”
On the 28th of June 2019, respondent left Edirne at 21:00 by foot to enter Greece, with three other people. One from Algeria and two others from Morocco. The group managed to cross the border at around 22:30. According to the respondent he felt that there were some chemicals on the fence which made their body itchy and hindered them to cross it. However, the group managed to cross the border, and walked for almost 40 minutes in the direction of Greek-Bulgarian border.
After sometime, the group took some rest in a forest nearby and then continued their journey. They kept on walking for 5 nights while taking rest in the days. On the 3rd of July 2019, the group was caught by the authorities wearing greenish color uniform whom respondent termed as police at around 11:00 in the morning in a forest near a road.
‘They arrived in two vehicles with 4 policemen. One was a White Nissan Pickup while the other was a jeep’.
Police searched their bodies, handcuffed them and put them in the vehicle’s trunk. According to the respondent, he felt that the police was searching for some other people around the same area. After two hours approximately, the group was taken to a building with two very dirty rooms with a small toilet attached which the respondent termed as “a jail in a police station”. The room in which the respondent along with his group wee put in had 6 people including children and women from Iraq, Syria and Somalia while the other room had approximately 40 people, most of them from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The group was detained for almost 5 hours and at around 19:00, 4 officials wearing a military uniform with their faces masked came whom the respondent termed as Greek Military personals. Military personals along with some policemen put all the detained people of both rooms in a police van.
After 1 hour and 30 minutes the van reached a place which the respondent termed as a camp where more people were put into the van. According to the respondent they were not allowed to get down from the vehicle when more people were being forcefully put into the vehicle and he termed the behavior of the authorities inhuman as they were beating people to get inside the vehicle despite the fact there was not enough room available. Once all the people were inside, the vehicle started moving, escorted by two police vehicles. One at the front and one at the back.
At around 21:00, the group reached a place near the river where they were asked to get down. Here they saw two wooden motor boats which were used to shift them to the other side of the river. Both boats carried 10 people each with two military personnel and dropped the people to different spots on the Turkish side of the river. All of the people were shifted to the Turkish side. Once they were all in Turkey, the military personnel fired in the air to alert the Turkish authorities. Soon Turkish authorities which the respondent termed identified as the Turkish military, arrived at the scene, and arrested all the people. However, some managed to flee. The respondent and his friend were among the arrested ones.
According to the respondent they were taken to a police station in Edirne where their personal data was taken along with photographs. Afterwards, they were shifted by the Turkish authorities to Istanbul where they were released.