The light from the flashlights hits an orange inflatable boat. A small hand opens the tent on the lifeboat and eleven people look out. It was the sight that met the Turkish lifeboat at the end of August.
A little girl holds on to her doll as she is lifted into the Turkish boat, and hopefully to safety. The adults climb into the boat by themselves. Among them are Fatima Dhaiwi and her two daughters.
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A man kisses his child on the cheek after arriving on the Greek island of Lesvos after several days at sea. Photo: Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
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Forced back at sea
– You have no idea what they have done to us, we will never go back, she says to the Turkish crew while she looks down on her daughters, writes CNN.
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A Syrian girl jokes into a blanket she has received after arriving on the Greek island of Lesvos. Photo: Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters
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Dhaiwi tells CNN how she and the ten others were forced back to sea by “masked men” when they arrived on the Greek coast. The group of eleven is just one of many who have told of similar incidents, allegations by Greek authorities claim are false.
The UN sounds the alarm
The UN is now sounding the alarm after receiving an “alarming number of credible testimonies” from men, women and children who are said to have been banished after arriving in Greek waters.
According to UNHCR, The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, around 5,000 people have sought asylum in Greece since the beginning of March. According to the UN agency, this is a far lower number than in previous years, yet more and more people are forced back to sea on arrival. They are now asking the Greek authorities to launch an investigation.
Since February, 6,600 people have been picked up from the sea after being rejected by Greek forces, the Turkish Coast Guard claims. According to the rescue crews, the people were found “in small plastic dinghies or in lifeboats not suitable for the open sea”. Dhaiwi and the ten others who were found with her are included in this figure.
– They aimed a gun at my son’s head
According to CNN, Dhaiwi’s family left Lebanon six months ago. The goal was to find the way to Germany via Greece. The family’s first encounter with the Greek forces took place on the island of Lesvos, the same island where Europe’s largest refugee camp, Moria, was located.
– They grabbed me by the neck and hit me. At the same time they held a knife to my husband and aimed a gun at my son’s head, Dhaiwi tells CNN.
CNN can not confirm the identity of the masked men, nor their affiliation. The family describes how they were searched and deprived of the money and telephones they were carrying. The testimonies of the others who were in the boat with Dhaiwi are not different from hers.
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A woman carries her sleeping child to the Greek island of Lesvov. Photo: Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
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Should be reunited with her husband
According to Somali Ayat Abdi Ibrahim, she and those she arrived in Greece with were surrounded and stolen assets and medicines.
– Not even animals are treated like this. I wanted nothing from them, not money or anything else. All I wanted was to find my husband, Ibrahim tells CNN.
Ibrahim’s husband has lived in Italy for five years. After the treatment she received on Lesvos, she does not dare to try to be reunited with her husband again.
“New” Moria
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A helicopter flies over the temporary camp that was set up after the Moria camp burned down last week. Photo: Dimitris Tosidis / AP
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A new camp has recently been set up after the fires that broke out in the Moria refugee camp. Asylum seekers refuse to move into the new camp for fear of not being released again. On Monday, the Greek authorities decided that only migrants who move into the camp will have their asylum applications processed. Those who do not move in will have their applications dropped and any interviews canceled, writes Lesvos News.
About 12,000 asylum seekers became homeless when the Moria camp burned down last week. The new tent camp has so far accommodated 5,000 people, and Greek authorities hope that all 12,000 will be accommodated soon.
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