9. Asylum and the asylum procedure in detention »I told my friend that if they bring us back to Iran, where we will be executed anyway, then it is better to commit suicide before crossing the border to Iran.« E.A., from Iran187 ■ E.A. is a political refugee from Iran. He is a dissident and well-known journalist who writes critically of the government of Ahmadinejad. For this reason, allegedly, he was persecuted, arrested and detained for more than a year. On August 2, 2010 he was arrested by Greek police and kept in the prison at Soufli and later in Venna. His detention was intended to prevent the »threat« of a possible escape despite already having told the authorities upon arrival that he was afraid to return to Iran and having asked to apply for asylum from the very first moment. »I registered upon arrival at the Greek police in order that they protect me, like it is done in all European countries. Instead I was arrested and put into detention. Although I told them from the very beginning that I had to leave my country for political reasons of persecution and not for economic reasons, and although I even had documents proving my story, they just took them away and threw them into the rubbish bin.« Only after repeated pleas the officers took his documents out of the rubbish, still without the proper procedure of registration and storage of personal belongings. E.A.s claim was not registered in the beginning. Instead he was issued a deportation order and a temporary detention order. »On the 10th day of detainment the police put me in a van together with another Iranian refugee. They put handcuffs around our hands/ wrists and brought us to the Turkish border. I was knocking the window and telling the Turkish officers that my life is in danger, but they couldn’t hear me. I was so afraid that my official documents and my identity would be given to the Turkish and then to the Iranian authorities, that I started tearing up my documents, my ID, my press card – whatever was carrying my pictures. I told my friend that if they bring us back to Iran, where we will be executed anyway, then it is better to commit suicide before crossing the border to Iran. The van crossed over to Turkey where Greek and Turkish officers met and talked inside a building. But they did not accept us back. We were so happy that we didn’t ask for the reason. We were then brought back in the same car.« 187 E.A. from Iran; August 25, 2010 – Soufli and in October 2010 – Athens 59 Finally, E.A. received some help from NGO lawyers, which pressured the authorities to let him lodge his asylum claim, which was planned for August 21. »Two police officers visited me without an interpreter. We were told: ›If you ask for asylum here you will be kept in prison for six months. If you file your claim in Athens you will be released immediately!‹ Then they gave us to sign apaper in Greek, which we could not understand.« Only later on August 25, 2010 during our visit, and after the translation of the two missions’ lawyers, he understood what he had signed. The paper said: »I do not wish to claim for asylum. I am not politically persecuted in my home country, but I left it for economic reasons.« Thus his asylum claim was not registered in the first instance and he still faced the threat of being deported on grounds of the readmission agreement with Turkey. Only because of the intervention of his lawyers his asylum claim was registered at the end and his documents were handed to him by the police. The detention conditions in Soufli were horrible. »The head of the detention centre was very unfriendly. One day I told him that even if they treated us according to the EU law for the correct treatment of animals, it would be better than what they do now! […] You know they even took away my mobile phone and broke it. When I had the chance to call my family, I didn’t. What would I have told them? The detention conditions were so bad. Instead I complained to the authorities and the UNHCR, the Reporters Without Borders in France, and the Red Cross which also represented all the other detained refugees and complained about the inhumane detention conditions.« After several appeals against the continued detention of asylum seekers, E.A. was finally released and went to Athens. For his asylum interview, however, he had to return to Alexandroupolis police head quarters. The interview was very low standardized, no official interpreter was provided to him and they denied to accept his documents which were proving his asylum claim. In addition the behaviour of the police officers towards him and his GCR-lawyer was insulting. From the very beginning the police officers, who conducted the interview, were telling him that they do not believe him, stressing all the time that he was one of the people who used to complain about detention conditions in Soufli.