• When taken back to the river, refugees told PRO ASYL that they were ordered not to make any noise or move and were allegedly threatened with guns. They were forced to enter their boat with the policemen and were turned back to the Turkish side. In many cases, interviewees reported that while being pushed back, the police had tied their hands behind their backs with plastic handcuffs. Many interviewees claim that they were held for hours and pushed back in groups from different places. In another case, an unaccompanied minor, claims that he was separated from his relative during the push-back operation and he later found out that his relative had been deported back to Afghanistan.127 5 | DEATH IN THE AEGEAN SEA ‘I knew it was a dangerous trip; I didn’t know we would drown!’ M.B. (16), from Afghanistan131 ‘When they left us on the other side of the river, we had our hands tied with plastic handcuffs. They cut the handcuffs only from one and gave him scissors to cut the handcuffs of the others.‘ 128 ‘They aimed their guns at us and ordered us to be silent (...). ‘Ssssssssh’ they said. They were moving us like thieves, silently, hiding us. There was a small wooden fisherman’s boat. They put us in it – 30 persons – and drove back and forth, always threatening with their guns to keep silent.’ 129 ‘The officers waved us not to make any noise. We know from others that they always do like that and that when there are Turks from the other side, they take the people for a ride.’ 130 Burying the victims of the border in Lesvos. | © Marily Stroux 126 | R., from Afghanistan (with his elderly mother) / pushed-back from Evros in September 2012; Interviewed in Athens (Greece), January 6, 2013 127 | M. (16 years old), from Afghanistan / pushed back from Evros in August 2012; Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos island, Greece), December 20, 2012 128 | I., from Somalia / pushed back on 2.5.13 from Evros; Interviewed on the ship from Lesvos to Athens (Greece), June 10, 2013; See also F., M. and I. from Somalia 129 | R., from Afghanistan (with his elderly mother) / pushed-back from Evros in September 2012; Interviewed in Athens (Greece), January 6, 2013 130 | N.N. (32 years old), from Eritrea / pushed back from Evros in June 2013; Interviewed in Athens (Greece), August 16, 2013 34 | dEATH-iN tHE aEGEAN sEA 131 | Welcome to Lesvos, Interview with the Survivor of the Ship Tragedy in Lesvos. Available at: http://lesvos.w2eu.net/2012/12/17/interview-with- the-survivor-of-the-ship-tragedy-in-lesvos/#more-55 On the 14th in the afternoon a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan was rescued in the sea near Lesvos. He had been on a boat with more than 30 other refugees when the dinghy got in distress. The next day three corpses were found at the village Thermi (15 km north of Mytilene). More corpses were found in the following days at the beaches of Thermi – in total 27 bodies. Some remained missing – among them one elderly man, two women and a child. dEATH-iN tHE aEGEAN sEA | 35