Although by far the largest number of people interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they had been summarily returned from Greece to Turkey, a few spoke about being returned under what appeared to be a formal procedure.77 The common characteristic of these cases is that of naïve honesty: each person admitted to being an Iraqi national who had entered Greece via Turkey. An Iraqi Kurd who was deported from Greece to Turkey and from Turkey to Iraq, where he was arrested, jailed, and tortured, told Human Rights Watch, “Many Iraqis said they were Palestinians so they will not return you, but I didn’t know this. I said I was an Iraqi. That was my mistake.”78 Another Iraqi deported from Greece to Turkey was a 28-year-old member of the Sabean religious minority from Baghdad who fled following a death threat from the Mahdi Army. He was caught towards the end of 2006 by the Greek Coast Guard on an old fishing boat carrying about 150 people. The Coast Guard towed the sinking boat to the port of Lavrio where they held him in a camp for 10 days before transferring him to a jail near the airport in Athens. He said that he initially requested asylum, but that a lawyer told him that he would not be allowed to apply for his family as well, so he decided against applying. “I refused to ask only asylum for myself,” he said. “I told them everything about being a Sabean and being afraid, but I did not ask for asylum.” 79 During his stay at the airport jail, he was told that the UN would come to visit, but they never did. He said that a private lawyer came, but asked for 600 euros to represent him, which the Sabean man could not afford. Early one morning, the police came and told the Iraqi detainees that they would be taking them to a nice, open camp. He gave this account of the deportation: They put about 80 of us on two blue buses. It was a 14-hour ride to Alexandroupolis. They wouldn’t let us out of the bus the entire 14-hour ride. We had to urinate in bottles. During the ride they gave us only water, no food. When they stopped for the drivers and guards we offered to pay 77 Interviewee B-14 also provided testimony about being formally deported from Greece to Turkey and being turned over to Turkish officials at a border crossing. 78 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-23), Athens, May 28, 2008. 79 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-13), Athens, May 26, 2008. 37 Human Rights Watch November 2008