4 ENTER AT YOUR PERIL Lives put at risk at the gate of europe © Giovanni Cocco © Giorgos Moutafis PUsh-BACks PUT LIvEs AT RIsk ThE sTORY Of B. AND hIs fAmILY Amnesty International spoke to people who claimed that their lives have been put at risk because of the actions of the Greek border police and coastguard. Some of the refugees and migrants navigating the Aegean Sea on overloaded small rubber boats described how at first they were relieved to see Greek coastguard boats. But they soon discovered that what they believed to be a rescue was in fact an operation to send them back to where they had departed from. In some cases people recounted how they deliberately damaged their boats once they spotted the Greek coastguard, hoping they would be rescued and taken to Greece. left: Greek Coastguard near the island of Samos apprehending a boat with 25 migrants, November 2009. centre: Footprints left by migrants on the banks of the River Evros at Lagyna, Evros region, Greece, February, 2011. right: A group of migrants walk towards in March 2013, b., a 17-year-old boy from afghanistan, was being held at removal centre in turkey, close to the aegean coast. he was held in the centre with his two sisters, aged 15 and 16, as well as the children of his late sister – two boys, aged seven and three, and a girl of five. he explained that his parents and older sister died in a bomb blast in ghazni, afghanistan. fearing for his life and the lives of the five children placed in his charge, b. left afghanistan in september 2012 with his sisters, nephews and niece. he stayed in iran for five months and then came to turkey. he went to the large coastal city of izmir, where most refugees and migrants start their journey across the aegean sea. there he negotiated with smugglers to take him and his family to greece. they were put on board a rubber dinghy with 36 others from syria, sudan and iran. the smugglers told them to aim towards the lights in the distance, which they said was a greek island. Nea Vissa village, Evros region Greece. October 2010. Amnesty International July 2013 index: eur 25/007/2013 “we left at 11.15pm. this was in late february 2013. but we couldn’t reach the island. we were at sea for three and a half hours. then the greek boat with greek police found us. they took us onto their boat. they beat us very badly. they took all our money, our mobile phones, our clothes. everything we had. they beat my sister so badly she has bruises all over her now … so, we were on [the] greek boat for three hours. at around 6am they took us back to turkish waters; they put us back on our own boat, they scratched one side of our boat with their knife, they damaged our boat and they took away the motor and left us in the middle of the sea. we were 42 people altogether. there were three small children with us: my niece and nephews. there were also other children, but they were older… we were left in the middle of the sea, with nothing but a damaged boat.” b. said that the turkish coastguard rescued him and his fellow travellers. they were then detained at a removal centre for irregular migrants awaiting deportation.