perhaps there was a chance they could all find their way to a better life.
A car came and they took us away. We were held overnight, and they took everything – my money,
identification cards, my mobile phone
Besides, says Yunus Dowlati, they had little choice. The 58-year-old had been working as a labourer at a
plastics factory in Iran until six months ago. But Iran’s economy had begun to contract under the weight of
United States sanctions, inflation had eaten away at his pay, and he wasn’t making enough money to send
back to his wife and children.
“I have nowhere else to go,” he says. “I can’t go to Greece. And I have nowhere to go in Turkey. I have lived
in Iran for 38 years, Afghanistan is a foreign country to me.”
Once they got to Doyran, they boarded boats and headed towards the Greek side of the river, encouraged,
they say, by Turkish officers. Many managed to get the Greek side. Some even stayed on the other side for
hours, planning to travel deeper into Europe once night.
But many of the migrants told versions of the same story: once on the Greek side, they were caught by
Greek authorities. They were stripped of their belongings and even their clothes and shoelaces. Some were
beaten. Some were locked up overnight in squalid detention centres. All were eventually placed on boats
and sent back to the Turkish side.
“We were in the woods when the Greek police caught us,” says Ghassem Rezai, an 18-year-old Afghan
refugee. “A car came and they took us away. We were held overnight, and they took everything – my
money, identification cards, my mobile phone.”
Migrants and refugees scuffle with riot police
on Lesbos (AFP/Getty)Citing national security concerns, Greece on Sunday suspended its adherence to treaty obligations on
refugees, denying any the right to apply for temporary protection. The move has outraged some advocates
for refugee rights, but appears to be supported by EU leaders in France and Germany, who have allocated
hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency funds to Greece and are planning high-profile visits to show
solidarity with the Athens government.
Still, thousands are said to be gathered at the main Greek crossing at Pazarkule, off limits now to journalists.
Yesterday hundreds could be seen walking towards the checkpoint, past the Turkish gendarmerie
checkpoint while carrying a few belongings and juice boxes and sesame bread donated to them by charitable
groups along the way.