black were guarding the informal detention site and acted in an aggressive manner; they beat and kicked some of the asylum seekers and insulted them. No food or water was provided. In the evening, the asylum seekers were transported in small vans by men dressed in black, holding knives and bats, to the Evros river bank where there were more Syrian refugees. The asylum seekers reported that they saw these men in black collaborating with the Greek authorities. The men in black took the asylum seekers’ money under the threat of knives before they made them enter a boat. At the shore there were two boats waiting with four more men in black clothes and fullface masks. They went back and forth to the islet where they abandoned the asylum seekers. Inhuman and degrading treatment led to the reported drowning of a 4-year-old child: On the islet, a pregnant Syrian woman was in a distressing condition. She was bleeding and eventually fainted. Another Syrian woman, a single mother, had been boarded from the Greek river bank onto the boat with her three children (one 2-year-old and two twin 4-year-old boys). While on board, a Syrian asylum seeker was holding the 2-year-old in his arms, helping the mother who was already holding her twins. The boat was driven by two masked men who did not speak at all. A few meters before the islet, the 2-yearold moved and a masked man raised his oar and hit the Syrian man who was helping the mother, causing the boat to rock; as a result one of the twins fell into the water. The mother started scream- ing, but the masked men did not offer any help and did not stop the boat. The Syrian man immediately jumped into the icy waters together with the 2-yearold child that he was holding, reached the nearby islet, left the 2-year-old child safely there and returned to the water to look for the 4-year-old who had fallen. The mother did the same with the child she was holding and dived into the water desperately looking for the other twin who had fallen in the river. They would never find the child in the absolute darkness and icy rushing waters. Inhumane conditions on the islet: On the islet, where they remained for six days, it was very cold and there was no food, apart from some dates and old pieces of bread that had been left there by the people who were previously on the islet. The adults gave the bread to the children and they ate dates once a day. In the last days they had nothing to eat. They drank water from the river and tried to start a fire to warm themselves. It was raining and very windy at night. Both adults and the children suffered from food poisoning. While they were on the islet, men in military uniforms from the Turkish side of the river several times threatened that they would return them to Syria should they go back to Turkey. In the morning of 16 March, men in black formal uniforms appeared from the Greek side of the river and at some point there was also a drone flying above the islet. However, the Greek authorities continued to report to the organizations that had undertaken the case that they could not locate the asylum seekers. AT EUROPE’S BORDERS: BETWEEN IMPUNITY AND CRIMINALIZATION 15