The group was then led by at least 10 armed persons who wore military fatigue and balaclavas and who spoke Greek, to an inflatable boat which was operated by two Bangladeshi nationals who brought them to the Turkish side of the river, where they were left in the freezing temperatures without clothes until they were found by Turkish border guards. 156. As regards alleged pushbacks at sea, persons crossing the Aegean Sea from Türkiye to the Greek islands by boat claimed that they were intercepted by the Hellenic Coast Guard and removed back to Türkiye without any assessment of the risk of refoulement. Some alleged that they were forced to board a larger vessel before being placed on an inflatable dinghy and towed back to Turkish waters. Other persons claimed that they were intercepted by speedboats manned with masked persons in black clothes who violently boarded the boat and destroyed the engine or threw it into the sea, towed them farther out to sea and left them adrift in unseaworthy boats. A number of persons alleged that they had been apprehended by police officers or persons wearing masks after having arrived on the islands, notably Kos and Samos, and were thereafter transported to a port area, placed on a vessel and taken out to sea, where they had to disembark onto small life rafts, and were set adrift. Many persons also stated that on one or more occasion prior to successfully reaching a Greek island they had been intercepted by the Turkish Coast Guard and returned to Türkiye. For example, in an interview conducted at the CCAC Lesvos, a group of Eritrean nationals alleged that they were intercepted by a Hellenic Coast Guard boat in the Aegean Sea and pushed back into Turkish waters in the night of 6 to 7 July 2023. They claimed that one of the unidentified masked men, all four of whom were dressed in dark clothes, boarded the boat and hit a man whom he suspected of being the driver of the boat across the head with the butt of a gun handle causing him to collapse unconscious. The masked man then removed the engine, threw it into the water, and forced the group to hand over their mobile phones and money. The boat was left adrift for several hours until the group was picked up by the Turkish Coast Guard. The man who had been struck on the head remained unconscious and was brought to a Turkish hospital, where he reportedly died early the next morning. 157. As was highlighted in the 2020 visit report, the CPT delegation also heard about families being separated due to a pushback operation. For example, in March 2023, a mother and two of her children were reportedly apprehended by masked men after landing at night on Samos and, along with other persons, were taken back out to sea and left adrift on a small raft until they were picked up by the Turkish Coast Guard. During the apprehension and refoulement, the mother had become separated from her third child, a four-year old girl, who ended up in Mytilene under the protective custody of the prosecutor. Attempts to reunify the daughter with her mother are ongoing. Nevertheless, such a case clearly illustrates the tragic consequences of the violent practice of refoulement, which places the lives of persons seeking asylum at risk. 158. The Greek authorities have maintained, in their response to the report on the 2020 visit and in various exchanges, including with the delegation at the end of the 2023 visit, that there was no evidence to implicate Greek law enforcement agencies with incidents of violent forcible removals from Greek territory across the land border with Türkiye in the Evros region. Clear orders and instructions were given by the Hellenic Police to respect the human rights and dignity of all foreign nationals who arrive irregularly in the country and that detained persons shall not be returned before their application for international protection is examined. The Greek authorities also refuted the allegations implicating the Hellenic Coast Guard of disabling migrant boats and pushing them back into Turkish waters, or of persons being apprehended on land and subsequently transported out to sea and left adrift. The Greek authorities have pointed to the oversight mechanisms in place such as the Greek Ombudsman and the National Transparency Authority, in addition to the prosecutor’s office, as evidence that any alleged pushback operations would be subject to scrutiny. They also informed the CPT that the modus operandi of the human smuggling groups is to tell persons crossing into Greece that they should make up stories that they had previously been forcibly removed from Greece. The CPT is unconvinced by such reasoning as persons seeking asylum, especially women and children, have nothing to gain by making up stories of pushbacks. 47