I have witnessed three people beaten up for no reason. One Palestinian guy of 21 years old. They beat him for no reason and put him in a normal prison. They charged him of something and put him in prison. An Egyptian, also young, beat him in front of the guys. A Syrian was supposed to be released after 50 days but he wasn’t, he started a hunger strike for some days. They beat him so much because he started that even if he was just doing it by himself. He didn’t ask people to follow him. Respondent 24, Algeria. Detained in Paranesti PRDC. It’s because a lot of people get beaten because they don’t know the language. For example, if the police man is speaking with you and he tells you for example “stay down” [in Greek] and the other person is still looking at the police men, and the police men giving orders to stay down, this is the reason you got beaten with a stick. Because he just didn’t understand what the police said to him, he didn’t know the language. OK, they beat him [Greek prison guards], they took him to the toilet first, and then they beat him up with the stick, with their stick. They beat him so badly in order for him to not ask again for his rights and to be scared of them. Whilst BVMN acknowledges that in certain situations, for example where there is a threat to life or risk of injury, the use of force can be necessary, we affirm that from our testimonies, the use of force was excessive or disproportionate. The physical force that was used evidently diminished human dignity, which is in principle an infringement of the rights established by Article 3 ECHR. Electric Discharge Weapons (EDWs) EDWs are used to avoid lethal outcomes, and should be “limited to situations where there is a real and immediate threat to life or risk of serious injury”.41 As such, EDWs - like the use of violence and weapons in general - should be used as a last resort.42 BVMN has documented the reported use of EDWs by authorities facilitating pushbacks in testimonies pertaining to 632 people on our database, and specifically, by Greek authorities in pushbacks pertaining to 389 people from Greece to Türkiye.43 Two of our testimonies indicated that the use of EDWs were used in detention centres and police stations, highlighting that these incidents were not isolated and are part of a wider punitive strategy. In addition, while respondents described that EDWs were used as part of the general punishment and intimidation tactics - whereby detainees were reportedly taken to a “dark room” and returned extremely scared - BVMN asserts that the type of behaviours detailed by detainees were not life threatening, and did not warrant the use of weapons. The arbitrary and menial reasons for punishment - “make some little bad behaviour…when they speak loud or they make noisy”44 - is concerning. Violent and extreme measures are seemingly employed by authorities without first exhausting other, less harmful techniques. Finally, the time periods of physical abuse that respondents described - “15 to 20 minutes torture with electricity gadget”45 - raises strong doubts as to the proportionality of treatment, and evidences the intensity of the act which may amount to inhuman treatment or torture. The clear expression of fear in testimonies, as a result of the gravity of physical abuse, also plays a crucial role in analysing the use of violence and weapons in detention. The threat or use of excessive force can contribute to psychological harm which is established in Article 3 of the ECHR; it incorporates both physical and mental suffering. We acknowledge that not all testimonies describe personal experiences, but events that detainees witnessed first-hand when they were in detention, nevertheless documenting clear trends of disproportionate physical abuse against people on the move, which can be corroborated by the extensive testimonies in BVMN’s database,46 and other reports or investigations of violence by authorities in Greece.47 While BVMN acknowledges that EDWs can be a legally justified response to violence as a measure of last resort, overwhelmingly, testimonies indicate that EDWs are being used as an unnecessary tactical tool to induce pain, fear and suffering. Respondent 9, Afghanistan. Detained in Corinth PRDC. When they [the police at the detention centre] send us in the dark room - so after 15 or 20 minutes torture with electricity gadget so they torture us and then they send us back to the room and asked ‘you don’t have to talk about it’ and that’s why I’m really scared of them. Respondent 13, Afghanistan. Detained in Paranesti PRDC.. But I can say that they never, the police never listen “When some people they are fighting, for some people they just beat them with like…there is a gadget, it has electricity, they beat them with that. I don’t know what it’s called. But, also sometimes 13