Palestinian, he slapped me, but I caught his hand. Then another policeman punched me in the nose. My nose filled with blood.106 Iraqis most commonly said that the reason Turkish gendarmes beat them in the border region upon apprehension was because they refused to believe their cited national identity. Another Iraqi, a 31-year-old mechanical engineer from Baghdad, told Human Rights Watch that after the Greek police sent him across the Evros River on a wooden motor boat he was caught by Turkish police. At that point, he said, “I told them I was Palestinian. They didn’t believe me. First they started slapping me. I insisted I was Palestinian. So then they started beating me with a rubber hose.”107 Testimonies about gendarmes at the border beating migrants to establish their national identity continue after arrival at the Edirne passport office. A 37-year-old Iraqi from Diyala interviewed in Athens told Human Rights Watch about his experience at Edirne after being returned from Greece to Turkey in March 2008: I was afraid if I told them I was Iraqi that I would be deported, so I said I was Palestinian. They suspected that I was Iraqi and they tortured me badly. They beat me on my legs. I saw them beat an Iranian until he was unconscious. They took him away on a blanket. I thought the same would happen to me. I kept insisting that I was a Palestinian and they continued beating me for 10 or 15 minutes. They would beat me, ask me questions about Palestine, and then beat me some more.108 Similar to the beating of “Palestinians” to get them to admit to being deportable nationalities, Asians claiming to be Burmese are also subjected to beatings. A 29-yearold Bangladeshi man in the Edirne Tunca detention facility who was so thin and jaundiced that he looked like he might not survive his ordeal told Human Rights Watch about how he and others were beaten on the sidewalk outside the Edirne Passport Office. The gendarmes apprehended his group and took them to a police station where they were photographed and fingerprinted. He said that the gendarmes treated them 106 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-22), Athens, May 28, 2008. When Human Rights Watch asked him whether he got any medical treatment for his broken nose, he laughed. 107 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-31), Samos, May 31, 2008. 108 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-10), Athens, May 24, 2008. 49 Human Rights Watch November 2008