10. Minors »I couldn’t see what age they were writing.« N.H. and Z.S., from Afghanistan (16 and 15 years old)216 ■ N.H. and Z.S. are both minors. They were registered wrongly both as born on the 01.01.1992 – turning them into 18-year-olds. They were arrested on November 10, 2010 in a small police station. Their deportation orders were issued on the 13th of November respectively upon transfer to Fylakio detention centre. They both speak Pashtu and Dari (Afghan languages) but nevertheless, the interpreter for the screening was speaking Arabic only. »We are now 40 days in this prison,« the two small boys tell us shyly. »We were arrested and brought to a small police station. (Neo Chimonio) We were beaten repeatedly and asked to tell who brought us over the border. From there they brought as to Fylakio prison. An officer asked our names, age and country of origin. There was no interpreter. I couldn’t see what age they were writing. The police officer was sitting and I was standing far. They put us into one cell with the others who were with us. A cell with adult men. We are 80 persons in one cell. There are two clogged toilettes and two that work, but the sewage waters in the cell. We have seldom hot water, so we wash ourselves only once a week. We also have not received any shampoo, soap or laundry detergent to wash our clothes. But we don’t have any other clothes anyway. When we became sick we asked repeatedly for a doctor, but he didn’t come. We are never allowed to go yarding. There’s no light in the cell, but there’s light in the yard. It is never really dark and at the same time there is never enough light in the cell. Some people have to sleep on the floor. When can we leave from here?« The two minors claimed to be 16 and 15 years old. They were registered with the birth date 1.1.1992.»I have only learned bad words in Greek from the police officers here, like ›Malakas‹ [Greek: asshole] or ›ghamisou‹ [Greek: fuck you].« On December 8, 2010 GCR sent a first fax to the responsible authorities informing them about N.H. and Z.S. who were protesting against the mixed detention in Fylakio. They were detained in cell 1 together with adult men.217 During the following visit of the mission to Fylakio, the director orally re-assured us that their date of birth had been already corrected. 216 N.H. and Z.S. from Afghanistan; December 20, 2010 – Fylakio; March 2011 – Athens, Patra and Arta, Interviews by Infomobile 73 As for all detainees in Fylakio, none has with him any paper issued against him by the Greek authorities, unless he’s been transferred there from elsewhere. Files are only kept in the Police Headquarters in Orestiada and the lawyers could not double-check on the spot the directors’ words. On December 23, 2010 GCR intervened again sending a fax concerning the two detainees. For a very long time, we got not response from the Orestiada Police. Upon release, the minors told us: »After we met, the director asked us whether we really wanted to correct our date of birth, since this would mean longer detention«. The boys stayed in detention for a total of four months. A few days before their release the authorities responded to the lawyers, informing them that the age hasn’t been changed but they would be released within the following days. The minors called the lawyers to let them know they’ve been released and have already arrived to Athens. »We’ve been released two days ago. We had no money to pay for our ticket to Athens. We walked 8 hours until we reached Orestiada’s train station. We had no money and we tried to stop a police car to give us a lift to Alexandroupoli. Finally a police car stopped and we arrived to Orestiada. The officers were the ones who had apprehended us upon arrival. They gave us the money to buy the ticket to Alexandroupoli. Once in Alexandroupoli we still didn’t have money for the train ticket to Athens. We had to sleep overnight in the cold. It was snowing. Next morning we took the train without issuing a ticket. Unfortunately during a ticket control, they found out we had no ticket and had to get off the train in Komotini, where we spent another night in the cold. We had just lost the train and had no 70 euros for the bus ticket. Next morning we tried to take the train and this time we were lucky«. In Athens the two boys met some ex-inmates from the detention centre who borrowed them some money. They went to one of the informal hotels run by co-nationals were they stayed for a couple of days. The situation for refugees in Athens was really shocking to them, even after having spent so many months in detention: »Athens is horrible. Is there any way to return to Afghanistan?« 217 Protocol number: GCR 525/2010.