4. Refoulement, readmissions and deportations On October 10, the two Iranians, A.R. and S.M., detainees in Sapes, were returned to Turkey. Already on October 4, the authorities had been informed by a GCR-lawyer via fax about the detainees’ wish to claim asylum. On October 24, 2011, another two Iranian detainees from Venna detention centre were readmitted to Turkey. In the case of A.S. and A.A., GCR had sent a fax on October 21 informing the authorities about the Iranians’ wish to claim asylum. »The police told me to sign a paper. I thought it was the asylum application.« A.K., from Iran51 ■ A.K. has been returned from Greece to Turkey twice even though he was asking for international protection from the very beginning. »I left my country because my life was in danger. In Turkey I requested asylum but I was afraid of being deported back to Iran. That’s why I entered illegally into Greece, asking for protection there. It was October 2010 when I was arrested by the authorities in Greece. Upon my arrest, I requested for asylum. I can speak English. I was detained in Soufli for 15 days. I told them again and again that I wanted to ask for international protection. The police told me to sign a paper. I thought it was the asylum application. The detention conditions in Soufli were terrible. The police used to beat us. 51 A.K. from Iran; September 21, 2011 – Athens 52 A.S. from Iran; September 2011; Interview with Helsinki Assembly Turkey 19 Instead of registering their asylum claims, allegedly the police asked them to sign a paper they could not understand.52 It was a declaration that they wish not to apply for asylum. It seems, that all of them have been misguided by the officers. Now they are detained in Turkey under inhuman and degrading conditions, facing the danger of refoulement to Iran.53 54 Then I was transferred to Tychero, where I stayed more than two months. It was awful. It was a Monday, when I and another five detainees were transferred to the Turkish border. Nobody told us where they would bring us, or for what reason. The Turkish did not accept to take us back. The next Wednesday we were again transferred to the border and expelled to Turkey – 26 people in total. In the following period, I was in detention in Edirne. I wasn’t allowed to speak with the UN. I was afraid of deportation to Iran. In the end, after the interventions of NGOs and the UNHCR I managed to apply for asylum and I was released. I re-entered Greece. I was arrested in Thessaloniki this time. Again, I asked for asylum. The police told me to sign some papers for asylum. After two months I was again sent back to Turkey. I was about to be deported from there to Iran. Human rights lawyers heard about my case. I asked for asylum before the UN. When I was released. I came back to Greece again. This time I was arrested in Komotini and stayed in detention in Venna where I managed to apply for asylum.« After some months of detention he was finally released. 53 GCR fax ref. no. 816/2011 54 GCR Press Release of October 31