21 out of 27 got their arms broken, no matter whether they were children.
| 25.10.2021 | Malko Tarnovo/ Sükrüpasa | josoor | 41.9797938, 27.5250475 | Bulgaria | Turkey | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | no | 13 - 30 | 27 | Afghanistan | 14 | beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pushing people to the ground, electric shock, threatening with guns, dog attacks, forcing to undress, destruction of personal belongings, theft of personal belongings, reckless driving | 8 x policemen all dressed in black clothes & Balaclavas, armed with guns and plastic batons and “Gendarmerie” written on their backs, had dogs with them; 4 x cars, dogs, Some german police dressed in normal clothes and a Pullover with a german logo, four 4x4pickup trucks which had “police” written aside; 6 x officers wearing gloves and holding electric sticks - Electric Defense Weapons, 1x big black Jeep |
The respondent, a 20-year-old Afghan, experienced two pushbacks, one from Greece to Turkey and the most recent one from Bulgaria to Turkey.
The respondent crossed on a Friday night, the 15th of October to Bulgaria, in company with 30 other people who were all male, from Afghanistan and between 20 - 30 years old. Among them, 6 minors under 18 were in the group, between 13 and 14 years old. Two of them were so badly hit that they fainted.
They walked fast for about two days until they got to a point in Bulgaria where they were told to wait for a smuggler to take them by car. The group got food for only two days as they have been told to walk for two days beforehand. The walk itself took them two days and through nights. After reaching the spot, 2,5 h of driving distance to Thessaloniki, the men waited for 8 days next to Highway 92, near to a forest but next to that Highway. During the 8 days of waiting, they hid in the forest. Normally 2 - 3 hours before the car arrives, the group is told to walk closer towards the highway. The car comes and people start running to get in. “If you are left, you are left”. They are not waiting for you. But this time the awaited car never came. 30 people stayed in the forest for 8 days with only food and water for max 2 days. They started eating plants and mushrooms out of desperation. Three men who had not eaten anything and were under 18, fainted. It was cold and raining and nobody was dressed properly for the weather conditions. Throughout the 8 days, it was mostly raining. On the 6th day of waiting, some men called the names of the three boys. They found them dead. “We could not do anything and left them. We could not bring them to Turkey, not take them to the other side. We put some leaves on them, big plants. And left." They were so tired and could not walk. “We could not even shout for help because we didn't have any energy to do that.”
The respondent explains how smugglers are organized: one guy knows the path and has 3 assistants who are helping with the process. In this case, the main smuggler was afghan and the three assistants pakistani/punjabi. After waiting for 5 days, the three assistants left and the main smuggler stayed. These four men had bags of food but did not share any of that. On the 6th day, the smuggler even realized or accepted that the car would not show up and accordingly left the group to themselves.
After staying in the forest for a total of 10 days, the respondent started a fire around 10 - 11 am so that someone would notice them by seeing smoke or fire. They knew that a shepherd with a dog was around. The shepherd let off his dog, the group feared that this was police. But the shepherd called the police anyway who arrived within 20 minutes.
7 - 8 policemen arrived all dressed in black clothes and Balaclavas. They were armed with guns and plastic batons and “Gendarmerie” written on their backs, as shown in the pictures below:
