‘The Greeks tried to calm every one down: ‘Don’t be afraid. Now you have arrived. You are safe’. Then they took away our life jackets and threw them in the sea. They took away our engine and the fuel. Then they pushed us back. We stayed three hours on the sea until we could reach the Turkish coast.’ 77 • Some of the interviewees mentioned that they were forced onto a Greek coastguard big metal vessel, where they were ordered and/or threatened with guns to kneel down and keep their hands behind their neck, while some of them alleged ill-treatment. Most of the times, they were allegedly body searched (even women and underage girls) and in some cases, some from their groups were forced to take their clothes off. In almost all of the cases, refugees claimed that the coastguards took their money and their mobiles. Refugees told us that the coastguard used to take away all of the mobiles apart from one in each boat. Syrian refugees almost unanimously alleged that their passports were arbitrarily taken away and not given back. ‘They beat one of us with a wire. He was holding himself on their boat that’s why they beat him on his hands and legs. He had a big wound. Most of us were beaten with punches and kicks. There were about 10 police officers on the Greek boat. They were brutal. They had guns and a Taser, but they didn’t use the latter, they only threatened us with it. It was very bad. They could have just returned us back. There was no need to treat us this way. (…) One after the other we climbed on their boat [as ordered by the coastguard, ed.]. Each of the men upon entering their boat got beaten once with a stick. Then they ordered us to sit down. Then, each of us had to stand up one after the other, undress and be searched. They told us we should show them our things: money, mobiles etc. They threw our personal belongings in the sea and everything valuable in a plastic bag.’ 78 ‘There was a woman with us who was pregnant. They kicked her in the belly and pulled her by the hair… We are from the same village. She lost blood that day. They didn’t help her at all, even though the woman had grabbed their legs imploring them for help.’ 80 • Most of the refugees alleged that such a push-back operation lasted for approximately more than one hour. • Subsequently, refugees were forced back into their boat. In some cases, interviewees alleged to have been thrown from the coastguard vessel as if they were ‘garbage’. ‘Our boat was torn and they had tied it with a rope. (…) They took us to the Greek - Turkish waters and threw us one by one in our boat. One of us fell in the sea and we collected him from the water. They were throwing us as if we were garbage. Then they cut the rope. There was no engine, no fuel on the boat and no paddles.’ 81 • In one case a refugee was ill-treated when he climbed onto the coastguard vessel desperate to try anything in order not to be pushed back. ‘One of the men in our boat pulled himself on their boat. When he got up on it two officers started beating him. They were kicking him in his face and on his head. He tried to stand up. The Greek boat started to move away from us. 40 metres distance to us it stood for a minute. They came back on 20 metres distance to us. Then I could see how they had grabbed the man they had beaten by his arms and legs and they threw him in the sea.’ 82 coastguards jumped in our dinghy and searched the women and touched their breasts. They were screaming in a terrifying way and they put their guns on people’s faces, even on the face of women and children. We were all very scared. Men, women and children, we all cried a lot.’ 79 • Some refugees, whether directly pushed back to Turkish waters or after they were transferred onto a coastguard vessel, mentioned that the coastguard pulled their boat up and down before untying it and leaving them where it was untied and left adrift in the Turkish waters. In some cases this procedure of pulling them back was carried out with the coastguard having turned their lights off. In some occasions, refugees alleged that the Greek coastguard vessel created waves and pushed them back into the Turkish waters. 77 | H., from Somalia / pushed back end of May 2013 from Lesvos; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos island, Greece), June 9, 2013 78 | G., from Syria / pushed back from the Aegean in May 2013; Interviewed in July 2013 in Frankfurt a.M. airport (Germany) 79 | Ar.K.N (metastatic cancer patient), An.K.N, F.K.N (65 years old) / pushed back from Samos in September 19, 2013 while having launched a distress alert; Interviewed 20.9.13 via telephone; See also push-back from Farmakonisi 8.8.13 and push-back from Chios island 12.9.13 80 | M. (35 years old), from Syria / pushed back four times from the Aegean Sea (Samos, Chios) in the period between mid June 2013 and 18.8.13; Interviewed in Izmir (Turkey), August 24, 2013. 81 | D. (26 years old); A. (26 years old); F. (26 years old); F. (65 years old) (f); R. (25 years old) (f) with her five months old daughter A. and her husband H. (30 years old); C. (25 years old); H. (27 years old); G. (41 years old); A. (13 years old) (f); S. (43 years old); A. (41 years old); A. (42 years old); R. (30 years old); N.M. – 15 persons from Syria / pushed back from Farmakonisi on 8.8.13; Interviewed in Izmir (Turkey), August 24, 2013 ‘They told us to lie on the ground facing down and they stepped on our back. One of the 20 | pUSH-bACK oPERATIONS pUSH-bACK oPERATIONS | 21