bad words, we couldn’t fully understand. When they pulled a woman up they kicked her in order to move on and make some space for the others. Once everyone was on board, they forced us to kneel down with our hands behind our necks. They then kicked us, took all our mobiles (which had cameras). They searched them to see whether we had taken any picture. They took the money from the people who had some in their pockets. They body searched us. Whoever got in the coastguard vessel along with his personal belongings had his bags thrown in the sea. Someone said he didn’t remember the password for his mobile, so they broke the mobile and beat him. They pulled us in the area, which is very close to Turkey. They threw away the engine and the fuel along with the paddles. They were making fun of us, saying that we could use our hands instead of paddles. big one, which had the Greek and the EU flag and a small one, that had no flag, but the number: 84030. On the big one, there was kind of a diagonal line of blue and white colour. There were some things like stickers: the EU, German, French flags. The woman had travelled five times and she had some psychological problems. When she saw the big vessel she lost her senses and she was shaking. Her children were crying out loud: ‘Doctor! Doctor!’ The coastguards would circle around us telling us to sit down. There were 10-15 coastguard officers in the big boat. They were doing circles around our boat. There was also a woman officer and they were all staring at us proudly. The whole story lasted for about one hour and a half. We didn’t know whether the woman was dead or alive. She had lost her senses. R.H.: I had an international mobile with me so I called the Turks. A woman called a relative in Greece. Someone from our group called UNHCR in Greece and told them what happened and that we are in the water and we don’t know what’s going on. They told us not to hang up the phone. Then someone else called us from another number who spoke English. He asked how many people were in the boat. He told us to keep our mobile on for five minutes in order to be able to detect the signal and not to worry. Then they told us: ‘Hang up they are close to you. They will come and get you.’ After one hour the Turks arrived. The small boat was the same as the other times, but this time there were other officers on board who treated us a little bit better. They put us on the floor, with our hands behind our neck. They approached us, tied our boat and took the people up. The woman was unconscious in our boat and her children were crying. We had to carry her. The boat was going back and forth from the waves. They kicked our things in the sea. We were sitting down on our knees having our hands behind our necks so we couldn’t see what was going on with the woman. After two hours we reached Turkey. We went back to our boat and we also helped the woman to get in our boat. L.H.: The second time we were pushed back five days later (4.8.13). We tried again. We were 42 persons, 14 children, 5 women and 5 were elderly people (1 woman and 4 men over 61 years old). It was again the same thing. We were just some meters before reaching the Greek coast. The number of the Greek boat was 84604. It was the same procedure: They threw our things away: our mobiles etc. 15 minutes later, they called the Turks. The first and the second time, the Greeks stayed in a distance and observed. The third time we were brought back to Çesme in Turkey. We had nothing: no engine, no fuel… They had body searched us taking our mobiles and our money. The Greeks called the Turks. They took the woman to the hospital, but we don’t know where she is until today’. (…) 167 L.H.: The fifth time was on the 22nd of August. We were 40 persons from Syria and Sudan. Among us there were also some children and women. The weather was not clear, but I realized that we weren’t in the strait of Samos, but on the other side. There was a woman with her two daughters (15 and 16 years old) that wasn’t feeling very well. The boat was sailing so slow. We could see that we were close, but we couldn’t arrive. We were moving around for another two hours. Then two boats from the Greek coastguard arrived. The 167 | Due to the length of the interview, the fourth time was cut off. 64 | aNNEX-iNTERVIEWS I.168(brother), M.169(husband) and F.170(wife), from Somalia (with their 1 year old daughter) / pushed back from Evros 2.5.13 and from Lesvos 8.5.13 F. (wife): ‘We were pushed back twice. First time from the land borders and the second time was from Mytilene. We were with my husband, our 10 months old daughter and my brother. The first time, we crossed from the river. We were 45 persons – most from Syria and Somalia. A few hours after we entered in Greece, the police arrested us. They brought us to a police station where we stayed for three hours without giving us any food or water. They told us to undress. Then we were body searched. We were only with our underwear. They did this only to the men. They handcuffed us and we stayed without clothes. They then pushed us back to the Turkish side. There were six police officers 168 | Telephone interview, May 26, 2013 169 | Interviewed in Mytilene (Lesvos island, Greece), June 7, 2013 170 | Interviewed in Athens (Greece), June 13, 2013 aNNEX-iNTERVIEWS | 65