‘We were 45 minutes to one hour in the sea and we had crossed the Turkish waters, when suddenly we saw a boat on our left hand side. A Greek coast guard vessel had approached us, without us noticing it. It had its lights switched off. All of a sudden, floodlight was blinding our eyes.‘ 69 ‘Suddenly a boat of the Greek coastguard appeared. They started encircling our dinghy and making waves. Then they rammed our zodiac on purpose from the left side. Our boat took on a lot of water.’ 73 • In many cases the interviewees reported that they lifted the babies and small chil• Many refugees mentioned that at first one coastguard vessel would approach and immobilize them. Then, a second would come to pull them back to the Turkish waters. Usually there was one bigger steel vessel involved in combination with a zodiac. In most of the cases at least one of the two boats had 2-4 men on board wearing black uniforms and full-face masks. ‘Around 10 o’clock in the morning we were close to the island. Some meters away from us, was the Greek coastguard and they arrested us. It was a big vessel with a firearm on it of 12.7 mm. There were around 10 police officers on board. Two of them were wearing full-face masks. They told us to stop, to raise our hands up and not to move. They called and a second boat came. It was a smaller one, around 15 meters long. On the second smaller boat all those who were on board had their faces covered with full-face masks’ 70. dren in the air in order not to be pushed back and to get helped. ‘The coastguard vessel came towards us in order to ram our boat. Other people we have talked with in Turkey, told us stories about the coastguard ramming their boats. And the other men who were with us, they told us to lift our children in our hands. So, we took our children and kept them in the air. When they saw the children, they stopped.’ 74 • In most of the cases, refugees told PRO ASYL, upon apprehension they were ordered • The interviewees claimed that upon detection the Greek coastguard vessel would to tie their boat to the coastguard vessel. Subsequently, some refugees were informed that they were going to be dragged to the Greek shore, but they were instead pulled back to the Turkish waters. Others were ordered to hand over either the engine of their boat, parts of it and/or the paddles and the fuel tank. In particular, some described to us that coastguards removed a part of their engine with a wooden stick that on its edge had a metal hook. allegedly fire some warning shots in the air or sometimes in the sea and/or would encircle their boat (manoeuvres) creating waves or bumping onto the refugees’ boat with their vessel. In all of these cases, refugees told PRO ASYL that they were afraid of drowning. In two reported cases during these manoeuvres people allegedly fell in the sea.71 ‘When they heard the women crying they said: ‘Ok, we will put you in our boat.’ They told us to give them a big canister with fuel we had on board and after taking that away, they tied our dinghy with a rope on the back of their vessel. (…) They told us they would put all of us in their vessel, but they just pulled us back to the Turkish waters.’ 75 ‘When they left us in the Turkish waters they made waves again and six of us – all men – fell into the sea. The Greeks saw that, but they didn’t help, they just left.’ 72 69 | M., from Afghanistan / pushed back from Samos on 5.7.13; Interviewed in Athens (Greece), August 1, 2013 70 | A. (35 years old), from Syria / pushed back from Samos on the 22.8.13 71 | 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 persons from Syria / pushed back from Farmakonisi on 8.8.13; Interviewed in Izmir (Turkey), August 24, 2013 and A. (16 years old), M. (14 years old) and J. (9 years old), from Syria (three unaccompanied minors with another underage brother) / pushed back from the Aegean in November 2012; Interviewed in Athens (Greece), June 22, 2013 and M.S. (lawyer), from Syria / pushed back 8.9.13 from Lesvos; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos), September 17, 2013 72 | M.S. (lawyer), from Syria / pushed back 8.9.13 from Lesvos; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos), September 17, 2013 18 | pUSH-bACK oPERATIONS ‘They had a wooden stick with a small metal hook in one edge. With one movement they disconnected something like a small pipe or a wire from the engine, so it wouldn’t work anymore.’ 76 73 | M.S. (lawyer), from Syria / pushed back 8.9.13 from Lesvos; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos), September 17, 2013 74 | Y.H. (40 years old), wife N.T. (32 years old), A.H. (m) (15 years old), S.K. (f) (13 years old), S.H. (f) (7 years old), S.H. (f) (9 years old), from Afghanistan / pushed back from Lesvos on 13.7.2013; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos), July 23, 2013 75 | M.S. (lawyer), from Syria / pushed back 8.9.13 from Lesvos; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos), September 17, 2013 76 | A.M., from Syria / pushed back from Chios in mid-August 2013; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos), September 17, 2013 pUSH-bACK oPERATIONS | 19