If arrested, migrants were brought to the Police Directorate, where no information on their status, their rights or interpretation was provided to them. They were then either let free or transferred and detained in other police stations under equally degrading conditions. Or they were transferred to the Athens Aliens Police. It seems that shortly after their transfer to Athens, most of them were immediately released and returned to Patras on foot. “Pink card’ holders also reported cases of alleged ill-treatment during identity checks or mass police raids. Some of them have even expressed their fear of being “targeted” by the police, because they are “pink card” holders, and said that asylum seekers are treated worse than others. Police raids take place daily 42 in the places where migrants and refugees live, and are often followed by their eviction from these places. During these raids and mass roundups, migrants claimed that the police destroyed their personal belongings (clothes, blankets, food, mobile phones and SIM-cards and their documents) or set fire to them in order to force them to evacuate these places. We have been also told of police officers who threw tear gas or stones at migrants in the old factory of Peiraki Patraiki, in order to force them out. Police violence and harassment also takes place in other places, such as the traffic lights around the port of Patras, where migrants try to jump on the trucks, or in places where food is distributed to those in need, by solidarity groups or members of the church, and even outside supermarkets, where migrants searching for food in rubbish bins, or while walking to hospitals or to local NGOs. In some cases reported to us, police officers on motorcycles have approached migrants from behind and without any warning or obvious reason would hit or beat them while still in motion. In one specific case, a police officer on a motorcycle collided with a migrant and broke his leg. The migrant was then transferred to hospital. No investigation of this incident ever took place. 42 D  uring the research in Patras police raids took place on a daily level in the abandoned industrial area of Peiraiki Patraiki and in other provisory places where migrants and refugees stay and live. 20 A large number of these reported incidents of ill-treatment by law enforcement officers, take place in the new Passengers’ Port of Patras. The victims were migrants intercepted within the port area, inside the ferries or inside, underneath or close to the trucks. The alleged perpetrators in most of the cases were officers from the Special Operations Unit of the Hellenic Coast Guard (KEA). Migrants and refugees referred to them as “commandos”, whose work includes the detection of “illegal” migrants trying to leave Greece without documentation. In a few cases, the port police or the private security company personnel operating inside the Patras port premises, were also cited as perpetrators. In most cases, the victims told us that even though they had been immobilized, handcuffed and did not resist arrest, they were ill-treated by the “commandos”. In almost all of the cases, the victims stated that they were taken to remote places out of sight, where they were then beaten. On most occasions, the port authorities did not arrest the migrants or file any administrative or criminal case against them. It is obvious, that violence and ill-treatment is generalised, even when there is no resistance from migrants. Interviewees told us that they have been beaten with batons and telescopic metallic batons, and punched and kicked in every part of their bodies, even in the head. In some cases, they were forced to lie down on the ground while the perpetrators walk on their backs or step on their hands. Due to the serious injuries caused by these beatings, some migrants were rushed to hospital, in some cases bleeding, with broken arms or legs, unable to walk, or unconscious or in a coma. Some migrants told us they were in pain for a long time, in some cases even for months. We have seen – and in some cases taken photos of – scars, bruises, broken legs, open wounds and other injuries. In very few cases have we seen medical certificates regarding the injuries. Apart from the physical violence inflicted on them, we have been also told of different patterns of ill-treatment, which arouse feelings of fear, anxiety, distress and inferiority and which made migrants feel humiliated and worthless. We have been told that the “com- mandos” often forced migrants to jump into the freezing sea in winter and remain there for more than ten minutes. Others described how they were terrified and hunted by the police on motorbikes and/or with dogs, which were even sometimes biting them. One interviewee described how he was forced on to his hands and knees and “ridden” like a horse. At least five victims reported to us that electroshock weapons had been used against them, such as electroshock batons and tasers 43. One of them showed us pictures of the scars the taser had left behind. Another interviewee told us that he was threatened with a loaded gun. In another case, the victim told us that the offenders took photos of him with their mobile phones in a humiliating position. Yet another victim was forced to take off all of his clothes for an intimate (strip) search, without any reasonable cause or formality - as required - in order to carry out this search. Yet another victim was forced by a police officer to enter into a garbage bin, whereupon the lid was closed over his head. In all these cases, the victims were also insulted with words and gestures, directed at their honour, reputation, family, ethnic origin, skin colour and religion. Most of the time they were told to leave Greece and go back home. All these are clear expressions of racism and discrimination. It is more than clear to us, that the ill-treatment occurring in Patras, has no other purpose than the one of terrifying and “punishing” these persons, either because they have attempted to leave Greece or just because they are staying in that city. The aim is obviously to discourage them from coming. All of the people we have talked to expressed their fear and terror of further ill-treatment and felt vulnerable and unprotected. Allegations of the ill-treatment of migrants and refugees by law-enforcement officers in Patras, have been documented at least since 2007 (see chapter 3.1). Nevertheless, these incidents continue to be widespread and even got worse. The Greek governments’ reluctance to address this problem is exacerbating the climate of impunity, which fosters further incidents of ill-treatment. As long as effective actions aren‘t taken to investigate these allegations and as long as the perpetrators aren‘t brought to justice, the climate of impunity will persist. The reported incidents of ill-treatment by law enforcement officers, could amount to torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, which are not tolerated under any circumstances according to the Greek, European and international law. No exception can be made in the name of “combating illegal migration”. 43 The tasers according to CPT are electrical discharge weapons (EDW). There are various types of EDW, ranging from electric shock batons and other hand-held weapons requiring direct contact with the person who is the intended target to weapons capable of delivering dartlike projectiles, which administer an electric shock to a person located at some distance. On 12.12.2011 the Athens Mixed Jury Court convicted a retired police officer for two acts of torture with electroshocks using a stun gun on two youth G. Sidiropoulos and I. Papakostas in Aspropyrgos (Attica) on 14.8.2002. That was the first and the only case in Greece that a Court handed a conviction with torture, article 137A par.1 and 2 of the Criminal Code. Source: http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards.pdf See also: Periklis Korovesis‘ parliamentary interpellation to the Ministry of Citizen Protection on the use of tasers by the Greek police and consequent response. http://syriza-vyrona.pblogs.gr/2009/01/398367.html Eleutherotypia (January 22, 2009): “Halt“ of death with electroshock – What does M26 Tazer cause? http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=9778 21