»The truth may be bitter, but it must be told« coast guard, this time in the harbour, when they attempted to travel on into Europe. The refugees also told us that there had been fatalities when refugees tried to get aboard a lorry; once a lorry driver deliberately drove into a refugee who was crushed. The refugees reported that they had been beaten with electric batons. A young refugee, quite obviously a minor, told us that he had already signalled that he wanted to get down from a lorry when a police officer gave him a deliberate blow to the nose from down below and then continued to beat him. Another had injuries to his kidneys; he too was scarcely older than sixteen. We felt obliged to organise medical treatment for the badly injured. We therefore took a taxi to the nearest hospital and were able to find an accident and emergency department. The refugees were anxious about reporting police abuse – at least as long as they remained in Greece. One refugee, who had an injury to his nose, was admitted to a specialist hospital where his nasal passage was thoroughly examined. The result of this examination indicated that a major operation was probably necessary. Examples of injuries found in the refugees we encountered in Patras: Patras: Afghan minor in hospital after severe ill-treatment ■ Refugee D: Injury to the nose. He is 15 years old. The medical diagnosis is: bruised kidneys from beating, a displaced nose septum. He can no longer breathe through the nose. One month later further treatment is necessary. It needs further investigation to find out whether the bone beneath his eye has been broken. There is a serious medical risk. The bleeding following a blow to his face under the eye has already led to persistent headache. ■ Refugee A: Severe injury to the left eye, swollen wrist. He is 14 years old and wishes to travel to Britain. 44 Stay of Günter Burkhardt, Karl Kopp, Marianna Tzeferakou and Mubarak Shah (Translator) on 29 July 2007 ■ Refugee B: 18 years old, has a brother in Germany with a residence permit. His mother lives in Belgium. He has an infected wound on his abdomen. ■ Refugee C: He cannot move his fingers. The diagnosis reveals that an operation is necessary. He gives his age as 15 years. Patras – Gateway to Western Europe? 29