FRONTIER EUROPE Human rights abuses on Greece’s border with Turkey 15 4. SWEEP OPERATIONS RESULTING IN COLLECTIVE EXPULSIONS “We are scared of the police. If we see a policeman on the street, I freeze. I don’t know what to do. Should I continue walking or should I go back? I am scared to go out.” R., a Syrian woman in her 30s alone in Athens with her three children aged seven, five and one. In addition to tightening border controls in the Evros region, in August 2012 Greece also intensified sweep operations in urban areas to round up and detain irregular migrants. Migrants and refugees that Amnesty International met in Athens in April 2013 said that they feared going out as they were scared of being apprehended during one of these sweep operations, code-named Xenios Zeus. While carrying out research in Turkey in March 2013, Amnesty International interviewed two Sudanese men, D. and C., who claimed to have been subjected to collective expulsions from the Evros region following such sweep operations. One had lived in Greece since 2008 and the other since 2006. Both said that they had wives and daughters (aged three and five), who had been left behind in Athens when they were sent to Turkey across the River Evros. These stories show that unlawful expulsions to Turkey without being given a chance to explain their situation is not only a danger for people who have only just entered Greece but also for those who have been in Greece for years and have established family ties there. D., who had lived in Greece since 2008, described how he was picked up by police at the car wash where he was working in Athens in August 2012. He told Amnesty International that he was registered as an asylum seeker in Greece, but had left his asylum seeker card at home on the date he was apprehended: “I told the police I had this red card at home (asylum seeker card) and that I had a wife and child here; but they didn't listen to me, they punched me in the stomach and pushed me into a bus. There were about 25 others in the bus; from Sudan, Senegal, Bangladesh... We drove for about eight hours. Then they held us in a very bad place. Then at 1am, they took us in small cars to the river at the border with Turkey. I begged them not to send me to Turkey; I told them about my document, my wife and child; asked them to check their computers. But they told me to shut up.” C. said that he similarly tried to explain to the Greek police that he had lived in Greece since August 2006; that he had an asylum-seeker card and a child and wife in Athens. However, he was sent back to Turkey under cover of night in November 2012 with others who had been apprehended in sweep operations. When Amnesty International met him in Turkey in March Index: 25/008/2013 Amnesty International July 2013