Bulgarians, Purya was returned to the beginning of his long journey. The Greeks took Purya to the border with Turkey, kept him in jail for two nights, and sent him to the Turkish side of the Meriç River87 one evening in absolute darkness, without alarming the Turkish gendarmes.88 Greek Coast Guard Pushbacks Migrant being rescued by the Hellenic Coast Guard in the Aegean Sea. Photo courtesy of the Hellenic Coast Guard/Intelligence Directorate Although Human Rights Watch interviewed five migrants who were rescued and brought ashore by the Greek Coast Guard (some, but not all of those rescued also said that they were beaten or threatened with being shot), 10 other migrants told Human Rights Watch about uniformed guardsmen pushing them back into Turkish waters, puncturing their inflatable boats, as well as beating and robbing them. Another two migrants who the Greek Coast Guard returned to Turkish waters said that they had disabled their own boat. While the testimonies do not provide the overwhelming picture of systemic summary returns of the kind seen on the land border with Turkey at the Evros River, these testimonies, together with testimonies gathered in July and August 2007 by the German NGO Pro Asyl and the Greek Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants and published in the October 2007 report “The truth may be bitter, but it must be told:” 87 The Meriç River is the Turkish name for the Evros River. 88 Yaghmaian, Embracing the Infidel, pp. 188-189. 41 Human Rights Watch November 2008