even then they would stare at us. The room, where we were detained looked like a garage or a deposit room. The roof was of aluminium. On the third day, around 11 o’clock in the evening they took us in a car that was dragging something behind and brought us back to the beach. We stayed from 11 o’clock in the evening until 5 o’clock in the morning on the cement with our hands behind our neck. We were the five of us. Five soldiers were guarding us and five men were on the boat anchored there. They forced us back on the boat with our hands handcuffed in the back. Two of the men on the coastguard boat were wearing black clothes and the others were wearing military uniforms and were aiming at us with their guns. While we were detained there, they would beat us every day. In almost any occasion they would get in contact with us, for example when they would bring us water to drink, they would beat us. They were mostly beating me. When we were on the coastguard’s boat, they made a round of the island. Then they said: ‘Come, come’ and they brought two very small boats that were tied to each other. Two of us got in one of the boats and the other three in the second. A soldier was holding them with a rope. I had a Syrian passport. They had taken it from me so I asked them to give it back. They told me that my passport is in my bag. Then they told me that the Turks have my passport. Then they speeded up and suddenly slowed down. By creating waves they pushed us back to Turkey. The boat carrying the three persons was very heavy and started sinking. Then we saw the lights from a big boat. The boat that saved us was a big Turkish military boat. They took us to a military camp where they took photos of us. (…) We were barefoot and our clothes were torn by the Greeks. R.: They took J.’s Syrian Identity card, N.’s passport, I.D and driving license and my ID and my driving licence. They didn’t stop to beat J. even though he had his leg broken’. D. (26 years old); A. (26 years old); F. (26 years old); F. (65 years old) (f); R. (25 years old) (f) with her five months old daughter A. and her husband H. (30 years old); C. (25 years old); H. (27 years old); G. (41 years old); A. (13 years old) (f); S. (43 years old); A. (41 years old); A. (42 years old); R. (30 years old); N.M. – 15 interviewed persons from Syria (46 persons pushed back in total)150/ pushed back from Farmakonisi on 8.8.13 We left from Turkey at 5 o’clock in the morning. After one hour we arrived on the island. There was another boat, with Syrians as well. This boat arrived two or three minutes earlier than us at the sea shore. A.K.N.: When we reached the shore, there was a Greek coastguard boat in front of us, it made circles around us. It was white on its upper part and grey on its lower part. The police boat was a relatively small one. It had no flag, no European flag. There were four persons on board. They were wearing black uniforms and full face masks. Another man wearing full face mask, waited on the dock with a wooden stick. They started shouting ‘fuck off malakas’, you know bad things. The women and the kids started crying. They got scared. A.K.: There was someone from our group who spoke German. He heard them and he told us that they were speaking German. They said: ‘Come out to the shore’. They shot twice in the air. The Greeks told us to sit down on our boat and they pulled us out with a rope. They first guided the other boat offshore and then ours. Once offshore they shouted to us ‘sit down’. Four men of our group were chosen by the coastguards and handcuffed. They tied their hands with plastic handcuffs in their back. R.: C., D. and F. were the last to come out and the police waved to them that they would cut their throats. A. was also with them. They were very nervous. They were swearing a lot in Greek. They would say: ‘Malakes, gamo ton bela mou mesa!’ 151 A.K.: They beat D so much. One with a wooden stick and one other put his foot on his head and twisted it. D cried so much. He shouted in Arabic ‘I’m not an animal’. The police shouted ‘shut up’. H.: They made us kneel with our hands behind our head. They beat each one of the four (C., D., F and A) when they got out of the boat with a wooden stick, which was two palms thick. When we arrived we thought we were in Europe and we are safe. We left the war. As we were getting off the boat, they would kick us on our backs. One of the police officers put his foot on D.’s head as if he was stubbing out a cigarette. D.’s leg broke. It was still blue until some days ago. A.K.: ‘It was on the 8th of August 2013. We were 21 persons, all Syrians. Among us there were men, women and children. There was also a pregnant woman and a baby. 150 | Interviewed in Izmir (Turkey), August 24, 2013 44 | aNNEX-iNTERVIEWS 151 | R., one of the Syrians interviewed is from the Hamidi minority (Greek-Turk minority) and speaks fluently Greek. See also push-back interview 28.8.13 aNNEX-iNTERVIEWS | 45