‘(…) We arrived after 3-4 hours in the sea. I started running away to the mountains. Three ‘soldiers’ apprehended the three of our group, including my brother. They were dressed in black. (...) I was trying to hide myself in the bushes. They put a gun on my brother’s temple. He was shouting that they would kill me. After 30 minutes they found me in the bushes and they took me, with another three persons who were hiding under a tree, back to the beach.’ 98 ‘We were 12 persons on the boat. There were three elderly women, an elderly man with us and my brother, who is seriously sick. He has cancer. We arrived on the island of Chios. We knew it from our mobile we checked it on google map.’ 99 • Some of them were allegedly left under the sun for many hours, with their hands tied behind their backs with plastic handcuffs, and others were beaten with a wooden stick. No food was given to them. Among them, there were women and children. During their detention, they were allegedly visited by a military doctor. ‘Once in Farmakonisi, they made us all lie down facing the floor. (…) This lasted for about two hours. (…) They beat us on the face and in the groin area. They were telling: ‘Syria, rubbish people’. Whoever tried to talk, they grabbed him from the neck, trying to choke him. (…) They took also the clothes of the other people off and left them in their underwear. (…) He would beat with kicks and punches. Two of them were beating us, by putting us in between them as if we were a football ball. (…) They beat us for two hours in the basketball court. (…) Some of the people from our group remained unconscious for 3-4 hours in the camp.103 4.1.3 | The Case of Farmakonisi 100 • In three reported incidents concerning 21 persons interviewed by PRO ASYL, the refugees claimed that they were apprehended by the Greek coastguard either in the sea or after their arrival on the island and were detained incommunicado from 1-3 days, before being pushed back and left adrift. • The refugees were allegedly held in a storehouse, without access to the outside world and without being officially registered, they were only asked their nationalities. The interviewees alleged that they were severely ill-treated by the coastguards (special units of the Hellenic coastguard101). In one case, a pregnant woman was kicked during the push-back operation. She was brought to a hospital once back in Turkey, due to complications allegedly caused by the ill-treatment she had suffered.102 9.028 persons in the Eastern Aegean. Finally, we would like to underline that announcements with this kind of content, undermine the work of the Hellenic Coastguard, the mission of which is the security of the sea borders of Greece and their protection from any threat always with respect to the international Conventions and human rights.’ Available at: http://www.hcg.gr/node/5752 98 | A.B (27 years old) and M.B (28 years old) from Syria / pushed back after their arrest on Chios island on 27.8.13 99 | An.K.N (28 years old), Ar.K.N (metastatic cancer patient) and F.K.N (65 years old) from Syria / pushed back after their arrest on Chios island on 12.9.13 100 | Farmakonisi is a small uninhabited island near Leros Island, but it has a military monitoring unit. Farmakonisi has been recorded in the past as a place where apprehended newcomers are detained, but no access to NGOs or even UNHCR has ever been granted. 101 | See: Footnote 55. 102 | The husband of the pregnant woman on 26th of August 2013 confirmed that his wife was hospitalized in Turkey after the push back operation of 8th of August. 26 | pUSH-bACK oPERATIONS • They were later forcibly taken back onto their dinghies (which were left without an engine, fuel or paddles) and were left adrift. In two of the three incidents reported to PRO ASYL, the refugees involved said that they were left without a mobile phone. 4.1.4 | Push-backs of Boats in Distress • There were cases where refugees told PRO ASYL that when in the Greek territorial waters, their boat was in distress and their lives were in danger. They claimed that a call was made to 112, the emergency number, either by themselves or by others or by both. Allegedly they were sighted by the Greek coastguard and pushed back. •‘ In one case, on August 24, 2013, a boat carrying 14 Syrian refugees – among them a woman and children – was allegedly in distress 2 km from the island of Leros. The refugees claimed that they themselves called 112. The coastguard apprehended them after many hours and transferred them to Farmakonisi Island, where they were detained incommunicado. They were held on the island for 2 ½ days and were allegedly forced back onto their boat, which was left adrift in the sea. During their captivity, their relatives could not communicate with them, considered them missing and asked the assistance of PRO ASYL. PRO ASYL informed Frontex, UNHCR Greece, the JCRR in Pireaus and the Turkish authorities. 103 | O.M., M.M. and D.M., from Syria (Afrin) / pushed back from Leros; Interviewed in Izmir (Turkey), August 29, 2013 pUSH-bACK oPERATIONS | 27