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Background
Daily killing, fatal torture, siege, starvation, fear, lack of security, arbitrary arrests and kidnapping are some reasons, among many others, that have forced millions of Syrians to flee their country and seek refuge in the neighboring states in order to save themselves and their children this daily suffering. Meanwhile some Syrians, those living in Syrias bordering countries and longing for a better life, seek humanitarian asylum in Western countries by regularly submitting their applications to embassies or to the UNHRC. Others have chosen to be smuggled illegally into foreign countries, travelling without any official papers or IDs. This can be suicidal when it is undertaken by sea, given the high risk of drowning, and those who do survive often face humiliating forms of deportation.
Methodology
The Report depended on several testimonies1 , four of them being from citizens who made a preliminary stop at Greece before heading to their ultimate destinations in other countries. They talked about how they were arrested, beaten and ill-treated by the Greek authorities. VDC has been able to contact these detainees and / or prisoners by telephone in prison. It has also used Skye to contact others, some of whom had been able to reach European countries and others of whom are still waiting in Greece. These witnesses are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Dr. Fayad Sulaiman Abduljabbar Arafeh Khuder Shlash Fadi Marwan al-Jasoumeh Abdullah. He reached the country he was heading to and get an asylum. Lawyer (A, R) from Homs Mahmoud al-Ahmad, 41 years, from Damascus
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Introduction
Europe is usually the main destination for Syrian refugees, and Greece is almost the only entrance to it; Greece is one of the European countries that overlooks the Mediterranean towards the Balkan Peninsula, and it has land and sea borders with Turkey in the East. Many Syrian refugees therefore enter Greece through the river between Turkey and Greece which is, in turn, a way through it. The multiplicity of the Greek islands also helps to ease the sneaking. Greece is seen as a way to get to European countries, rather than a final or target destination for the refugees. However, it is one of the countries that follows a policy of humiliating deportation from its territory, especially when dealing with the humanitarian crisis of the Syrian refugees.
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He adds: Samos, the island that faces the Turkish city of Izmir, is the target for most of the refugees. There are many other islands like Samos, such as Kos, Rhodes and Mytilini but Samos is practically the only island that has refugee camps. When arrested, refugees spend about 17 to 30 days in these camps. When released, the refugee is given a paper of Banishment from the Greek Soil which gives its recipient days (or occasionally months) to leave Greece. Some refugees were able to get their papers renewed. In December, a friend of mine (A, Sh), from the Coastal City of Jabla, tried to get to one of the islands near the Turkish borders between Marcine and Antalia. Along with three other people, he swam to an island that is 4 km away from the coast. When they arrived, Greek Police turned them in to coastguards, who threw them into the sea to swim back to Turkey.
In regard to his suffering till he got to the destination country, Abdullah, 24 years old and from the City of Dier EzZour says: On the fifth of Ramadan 2013, in an attempt to get to some European country, I travelled with two of my friends from Dier EzZour to Turkey. Twenty of our friends were waiting for us in Turkey. At first we wanted to travel by air, but for that Syrian smugglers asked very high sums ranging from 15000 to 20000 euros. We therefore decided to go overland on foot. Our biggest torture was in Greece; when they caught us and knew us to be Syrians, they beat us and stole all our money. Among them, there were three masked German policemen. One night, after 01:00 am, they tied us and dumped us on the other bank of the river. We walked for more than a day till we got back to Turkey. About his second try, Abdulla Added: We arrived on foot to the Greek City of Falonek- the previous capital of Greece and then to Macedonia, where we were arrested by the Macedonian Police. They took all our money and broke our
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mobile phones before turning us back to Greece. We spent almost a month at the Greek-Macedonian borders. When we got to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, we spent a week there as we had spent the month before in the woods. After that we headed towards Serbia, but we got arrested again by the Macedonian Police. They detained us for six days and asked me to pay money to be released, but when I offered to pay they refused to let me out saying that Im a terrorist Taliban. During the detention period and every time they brought us food, they repeated the phrase Russia good and we had to reply by nodding and saying yes, yes. When we were released, we walked for about a week until we got to the capital, Belgrade, and then we got to Bokofaga and from there to Austria.
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all the fees in advance. She works in the office of the detention center they held us in. Some of my relatives tried to contact her but in vain. AbulJabbar adds: According to the international laws, Im not supposed to be arrested for more than 72 hours. Its been two months now and I have not seen the sun. Its a well-known prison called Komentina. Its part of the detention centre in Meataxades near the borders. This was the second place I was held. The first one was worse it was very bad one as it was full of mice, it stank and there was no hot water for showering. - Many of the detainees tried to go on a hunger-strike in an effort to complain and claim their rights, but the administration of the prison didnt care; although the guards are supposed to take detainees signature at every meal to show that the detainees have eaten, they save themselves any problems by faking these signatures when detainees refuse to sign.. Mr. Muhamad, a relative of one of the detainees, says - - One of the detainees started shouting and threatening to hang himself unless they let him out, Among the violations that have been documented by VDC was about the false accusations and so he did after they ignored his request. made against the Syrian refugees to get rid of them. After arresting 8 Syrians on a boat, the Greek Police picked two of them and accused them of smuggling and told the other six to falsely testify to that or face going back to the river and onwards to Turkey. However, they refuse to testify Mr. Muhammad says: - The real smugglers pay huge amounts of money - up to 10,000 euro to get charges against themselves dropped, while the innocent people get tried instead. Dr. Fayad Sulaiman, also a detainee in Komentina Prison says: Its been more than three and half months and they didnt give me any papers with the reasons of my arrest. It will take months before I stand before a trial; the verdicts usually involve long sentences. I couldnt contact my family as they are out of the phone coverage area inside Syria. Khuder Shlash, a 24 year old dissident soldier from Deir EzZour, says: I have two little daughters and I was trying to get out of the current war. The moment I got to Greece, I was arrested with two companions. My destination was Germany, not Greece. When they arrested me, they took all the money I had; my cousin had sent me this money from Germany to cover the expenses of my trip to there.
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One of my companions was tied by the police; they also threatened to throw him in the river if he didnt confess that Im a smuggler, even though I denied this in English. I have been here in Komentina Prison for five months. I know nothing about my family and daughters. I have received a paper saying that I have a trial in April 2014 and that I probably be convicted, but I dont know the reasons for this.. Even the translator they brought for me is not that good in Greek - when I asked him about that he said that he is a former Syrian prisoner from Hama and that it had been only two months since he started learning Greek. In regard to my two friends, they were released. One of them lives in Greece and the other lives in Germany. I still communicate with them and they are ready to testify that Im innocent. Fadi from Aleppo, who has a Lebanese residency as he was living there before going to Greece where he was arrested, says: When I arrived in Greece along with two other people, specifically to the train station in Orslada Village, we tried to hide but the police were ahead of us. After arresting us, they accused us of smuggling nine people. I showed them my papers with my salary as I worked in CBS Company for 7 years. They brought us an Algerian translator who told us that we were accused of trying to smuggle people. They replaced him with a Yemeni translator. This one didnt allow us to speak and he spoke with mockery and irony. After that we hired a lawyer who took 1500 euros and disappeared. Its been more than 4 months now and Im still waiting for the trial which will apparently take months. When I came to Greece, I was heading to Stockholm in Sweden.
A document confirm that Mr. Fadi Marwan al-Jasoumeh was an employee for VP service
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One of the most tragic stories that happened to Syrian refugees is told to VDC by witness (B.A), 29 years old: Once, the Greek Police tied one of the refugees to throw him in the river and before arriving to the riverbank, they started beating him savagely till his head bled.
In his testimony, Refugee Mahmoud al-Ahmad told VDC how the Greek authorities beat them while he was on his way to Greece overland: After spending 5 successive nights walking in open-air looking for our destination, we turned ourselves in to the Greek Police. They put us in a prison where there was 24 of us. That was at the end of November 2013. One night, they put us in a military truck and took us to the borders near Adrna. They checked if any of the Turkish Border Police were in the area as they were afraid of them, and then they put us in a boat just like sheep. It was so cold and rainy. When we got to the other bank they threw us all out. It was so dark and we lost ten people. I saw one refugee hanging to the boat on the way to the Greek bank. They discovered this and started hitting him with their boots on the face until he fell into the river. We looked for him but in vain.
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