O.: Just one guy was not wearing a mask. He looked like an officer. C.: We could not tell if they were officers or not. One was speaking English. His face was uncovered. O.: He was saying ‘Don’t cut the rope or we’ll kill you’. C.: They had guns, they pointed at us, those in black uniforms. But they weren’t pistols. They were big guns (she showed with her hands extended how big these guns were, ed.). They pointed their guns at us and they shouted quite angrily, that if we cut the rope, they would kill us and then refugees climbed one by one from the ladder up on their vessel. Refugees had to kneel down with their hands behind their neck and those who didn’t do it, were punched and kicked. They kept us for about an hour. They tied the zodiac onto their vessel and started leaving the area with their own vessel. We didn’t say we were journalists, they didn’t see us as journalists. They thought we were Afghans. And then they said they didn’t have time to take care of us and that a white big boat would come and take us to Samos island. Then they asked the migrants to get off the vessel one by one and get back onto the zodiac. And when it was done, they untied the boat. They shouted ‘Welcome to Greece’ and they left towards another direction. When we got back into the inflatable boat, the engine was gone. We were left adrift. And we didn’t know what to do, the refugees tried to use their mobiles. took photos and then they detained us for three days. They did what they could to proceed faster with us, in order to expel us, to deport us. And the refugees that were with us, the ones we had been following, after 15 in Aydin’s detention, on the 18th of August 2013 were deported to Afghanistan. They had no access to any lawyer. O.: Not all passengers from our boat were deported. From the five guys we were together, three were deported and two weren’t as they said they were minors. So they transferred them to a specific camp for minors, it was an open one and after two weeks they left from there. We were arrested for leaving Turkey illegally. It was easier to deport us, because we were able to buy our own ticket, this made the procedure faster. And since we are journalists, they tried to do it as quick as possible. O.: I think that he (the one without mask) is the same one who said ‘Welcome to Greece’, the one that spoke English. C.: I saw on my mobile, that there was Greek network connection and after about one hour? O.: One hour or two. C.: After one hour or two, it’s not very clear, a white vessel came, but it was a Turkish one and so the Greek coastguards had pushed us back into the Turkish waters and the Turkish gendarmerie rescued everyone and took us to the shore. The Turks arrested us, they counted everyone, so we waited in the boat, until they took the refugees and they recognized that we are foreigners, journalists. They took everyone to the police station. Downstairs, on the basement there was sort of a jail. On one side there were the men and it was very crowded. On the women’s section, we were just three women and it was quite. We were interrogated for a while, for more than two hours. They fingerprinted us and 70 | ePILOG ePILOG | 71