24/08: Injured Man west of Mega Dereio, beaten and pushed back to Turkey

25.08.2022 / 11:43 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th of August 2022

Case name: 2022_08_24-Eastern Med-977

Situation: Injured Man west of Mega Dereio, beaten and pushed back to Turkey

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Eastern Med, Evros Region

Summary of the Case:

On 24th of August the Alarm Phone was alerted by relatives to an injured man. He could not walk anymore and was left alone after crossing the landborder from Turkey to Greece. He sent his location which showed he was in the forest near the village Sidirochori, west of Mega Dereio.

At 16:19 CEST we sent an email to alert authorities, mentioning that he is in need of medical assistance and of international protection, because he is a refugee from Syria. We also called several local border guard and police stations afterwards.

At 18:20 CEST the injured man reported his phone was running out of battery. We could not get in touch with him anymore throughout the night.

The next morning at 8:13 CEST the relatives reached out to him and sent an updated location. Despite his injuries the man continued walking. They also sent photos showing the bandaged feet of the man.

We sent an updated email with the new location to all local Greek authorities at 8:33 CEST on 25th of August. At 8:45 we called the police station in Arianna who told us they would forward the border guard station in Sapes. We also called the Sapes border guard station again at 9:12 CEST, without success.

After this, we and the relatives lost contact to the injured person.

On 31st of August we managed to speak again with the relatives. They said he was pushed back to Turkey and shared the following story:

"He reached one of my relatives in Turkey and he is very tired. He has many bruises on his body from beatings. On 25th of August Greek police came. They threw him on the ground, teased him with electricity. They took his shoes and phone and forced him into the river. They forced him to fall into a river for the return and electrocuted him.
He wanted to reach Europe to find safety. One of his daughters is mentally disabled. In Syria, no one takes care of their problem. When he asked you for help, he didn't expect to be beaten.”

The relatives also sent us photos and videos to document his injuries.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1562489018171789312?s=20&t=tfsAxLUd230jwidekpwH2Q
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
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