Watch the Med
Development WTM site30/07: One person in need of medical assistance near Mikro Dereio at the Greek land border, pushed back to Turkey
31.07.2022 / 12:57 / Eastern Med
Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of July 2022
Case name: 2022_07_30-Eastern Med - 950
Situation: One person in need of medical assistance near Mikro Dereio at the Greek land border, pushed back to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med: Evros Region
Summary of the Case:
On the 30th of July our hotline was contacted by a relative of a person who was in urgent distress near Mikro Dereio at the Greek-Turkish landborder. The person was reported to be in immediate need of medical assistance as he got poisoned and could not walk anymore.
At 14:12 CEST we alerted Greek authorities by email and asked urgently for medical assistance and protection for the young man. As usual we received a message by Frontex saying that “Frontex has immediately relayed the message to the competent authorities” a few minutes later at 14:29CEST. Afterwards, we called various police and border guard stations, in Orestiada, Soufli, the Orestiada Regional Centre for Integrated Border Management & Migration, as well as the the PEKODISME in Metaxades.
The next morning we learned from the relatives that he was nevertheless pushed back, and was on his way to Istanbul. He was among 200 other people who were pushed back that night. According to the relatives, all their belongings were thrown into the river and Turkish police beat them when they arrived back on Turkish soil.
The following testimony was shared with the Alarm Phone by the person who was pushed back. It was published together with more testimonies about the systematic pushbacks along the Greek land border on alarmphone.org.
“We crossed the river in a rubber boat, and the Greek army did not notice us. We chose to walk during the day because the road was very mountainous and difficult with dangerous valleys. On the first day we walked for 7 hours. On the second day, the water ran out. We had no choice but ONLY to drink dry kind of spring water. It was not suitable for drinking. It was full of frog worms and insects. All of us got some vomiting issues after drinking this water, and I was the one who had most critical situation with a lot of vomiting fever and nausea.
On the third day, I could not eat anything and the nausea vomiting continued. On the fourth day, we reached a river coming from Bulgaria and passing through Greece, whose name I do not know. Because of extreme thirst, I drank from the water of this river which led to intensify my poisoning and I almost lost consciousness. I could not stand on my feet. My friends did not leave me, they carried me and carried my things. On the fifth day, the situation worsened, and I could not continue the journey. The friends continued their journey, and I took the phone, searched in the map for the nearest village, and headed for it.
Very exhausted, I reached a house and found a Greek family who gave me water. In fact, they were nice to me, but I noticed that their neighbour was making a call by phone and looking at me a lot. I understood that she was calling the police. I decided to go to the nearby church in the village to rest and hide a little, because I was really exhausted and seriously ill and without any power. I got to the church and suddenly the police car arrived. It was a big closed car. A policeman and a policewoman came out. I don’t remember well the colour of their clothes because I was almost unconscious. It could be dark blue. The policeman approached me and asked me, what am I doing here? So I told him that I m in a critical condition and that I need urgent health care. They told me there is no problem, we will take you to the camp. They opened the back door and here I found at least 30 people, all naked, with only boxer shorts on them. They were Afghan and Moroccan refugees. I spoke with one of them and he told me that they were in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian police took their money and clothes and took them back by force to Greece. The car was very hot and there were no ventilation holes. We couldn’t breathe in this overcrowded space. We arrived at the prison, got out of the car. They stripped us, took off all our clothes and put it on the ground. We were completely searched. Then the police gave me back my clothes, but without a tie of my shoes. They took me to a small and overcrowded cell without giving me any painkillers, food or water.
I was in the cell from two in the afternoon until eight in the evening. They took us out of the prison and put us in a closed car without any ventilation holes again and we headed to the Turkish border. We got to a place, where they about 40 people before us on the ground – all naked. There were masked people who were beating them severely. It was so dark I couldn’t see the uniforms of the masked people. They redeemed us money and started beating us with sticks for a long time. They brought the boats to cross the river and stole from me even my shoes. They escorted us in the boat towards Turkey. I reached the Turkish bank of the river. We entered the forest. The road was very bumpy and full with stones, especially without shoes. We were about 100 people, and then we split into groups. Suddenly we were hearing noise of engine but kind of military engines. Then we heard screaming people behind us – they were clearly being beaten. I was walking with people from Morocco, but because I was so sick, I was walking slowly and they were speeding. Then an armored military car came and took them in after beating them. I directly manged to hide and they didn’t see me. In this night, the Turkish army went crazy. There were a lot of vehicles and military vehicles, and the forest turned into a battlefield. There were a lot of soldiers and continuous combing, and I listened to a lot of screaming throughout the night. I hid from ten o’clock at night to seven o’clock in the morning without food or water and with a swollen leg that made me very dehydrated. At seven I gathered all the strength I had left to survive and ran to a nearby village. I arrived in the village and asked for help and water. I was so dehydrated. I couldn’t drink water. I asked for a taxi to Istanbul. Now I am doing kind of treatment by myself because in the hospital the Turkish police can arrest me and deport me to Syria which happening recently too much in Istanbul.”
Report on alarmphone.org:
https://alarmphone.org/en/2022/09/07/a-dilemma-between-unbelievable-violence-and-death/?post_type_release_type=post
Case name: 2022_07_30-Eastern Med - 950
Situation: One person in need of medical assistance near Mikro Dereio at the Greek land border, pushed back to Turkey
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Eastern Med: Evros Region
Summary of the Case:
On the 30th of July our hotline was contacted by a relative of a person who was in urgent distress near Mikro Dereio at the Greek-Turkish landborder. The person was reported to be in immediate need of medical assistance as he got poisoned and could not walk anymore.
At 14:12 CEST we alerted Greek authorities by email and asked urgently for medical assistance and protection for the young man. As usual we received a message by Frontex saying that “Frontex has immediately relayed the message to the competent authorities” a few minutes later at 14:29CEST. Afterwards, we called various police and border guard stations, in Orestiada, Soufli, the Orestiada Regional Centre for Integrated Border Management & Migration, as well as the the PEKODISME in Metaxades.
The next morning we learned from the relatives that he was nevertheless pushed back, and was on his way to Istanbul. He was among 200 other people who were pushed back that night. According to the relatives, all their belongings were thrown into the river and Turkish police beat them when they arrived back on Turkish soil.
The following testimony was shared with the Alarm Phone by the person who was pushed back. It was published together with more testimonies about the systematic pushbacks along the Greek land border on alarmphone.org.
“We crossed the river in a rubber boat, and the Greek army did not notice us. We chose to walk during the day because the road was very mountainous and difficult with dangerous valleys. On the first day we walked for 7 hours. On the second day, the water ran out. We had no choice but ONLY to drink dry kind of spring water. It was not suitable for drinking. It was full of frog worms and insects. All of us got some vomiting issues after drinking this water, and I was the one who had most critical situation with a lot of vomiting fever and nausea.
On the third day, I could not eat anything and the nausea vomiting continued. On the fourth day, we reached a river coming from Bulgaria and passing through Greece, whose name I do not know. Because of extreme thirst, I drank from the water of this river which led to intensify my poisoning and I almost lost consciousness. I could not stand on my feet. My friends did not leave me, they carried me and carried my things. On the fifth day, the situation worsened, and I could not continue the journey. The friends continued their journey, and I took the phone, searched in the map for the nearest village, and headed for it.
Very exhausted, I reached a house and found a Greek family who gave me water. In fact, they were nice to me, but I noticed that their neighbour was making a call by phone and looking at me a lot. I understood that she was calling the police. I decided to go to the nearby church in the village to rest and hide a little, because I was really exhausted and seriously ill and without any power. I got to the church and suddenly the police car arrived. It was a big closed car. A policeman and a policewoman came out. I don’t remember well the colour of their clothes because I was almost unconscious. It could be dark blue. The policeman approached me and asked me, what am I doing here? So I told him that I m in a critical condition and that I need urgent health care. They told me there is no problem, we will take you to the camp. They opened the back door and here I found at least 30 people, all naked, with only boxer shorts on them. They were Afghan and Moroccan refugees. I spoke with one of them and he told me that they were in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian police took their money and clothes and took them back by force to Greece. The car was very hot and there were no ventilation holes. We couldn’t breathe in this overcrowded space. We arrived at the prison, got out of the car. They stripped us, took off all our clothes and put it on the ground. We were completely searched. Then the police gave me back my clothes, but without a tie of my shoes. They took me to a small and overcrowded cell without giving me any painkillers, food or water.
I was in the cell from two in the afternoon until eight in the evening. They took us out of the prison and put us in a closed car without any ventilation holes again and we headed to the Turkish border. We got to a place, where they about 40 people before us on the ground – all naked. There were masked people who were beating them severely. It was so dark I couldn’t see the uniforms of the masked people. They redeemed us money and started beating us with sticks for a long time. They brought the boats to cross the river and stole from me even my shoes. They escorted us in the boat towards Turkey. I reached the Turkish bank of the river. We entered the forest. The road was very bumpy and full with stones, especially without shoes. We were about 100 people, and then we split into groups. Suddenly we were hearing noise of engine but kind of military engines. Then we heard screaming people behind us – they were clearly being beaten. I was walking with people from Morocco, but because I was so sick, I was walking slowly and they were speeding. Then an armored military car came and took them in after beating them. I directly manged to hide and they didn’t see me. In this night, the Turkish army went crazy. There were a lot of vehicles and military vehicles, and the forest turned into a battlefield. There were a lot of soldiers and continuous combing, and I listened to a lot of screaming throughout the night. I hid from ten o’clock at night to seven o’clock in the morning without food or water and with a swollen leg that made me very dehydrated. At seven I gathered all the strength I had left to survive and ran to a nearby village. I arrived in the village and asked for help and water. I was so dehydrated. I couldn’t drink water. I asked for a taxi to Istanbul. Now I am doing kind of treatment by myself because in the hospital the Turkish police can arrest me and deport me to Syria which happening recently too much in Istanbul.”
Report on alarmphone.org:
https://alarmphone.org/en/2022/09/07/a-dilemma-between-unbelievable-violence-and-death/?post_type_release_type=post
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