Greek border guards beat us, say migrants in Turkey

EDIRNE, Turkey

Ahmet Cuma and Velit Cemal are among the 252 irregular migrants that Greece forcibly returned to Turkey three days ago.

The Egyptian nationals said they were maltreated by Greek border police who stole their medicines, money and phones.

Cuma said that Greek soldiers punched and hit him with a bat.

"They took our medicines, money and phones in our bags.

"Then they punched me in the face and my eyes turned purple and they hit some friends with an iron stick," Cuma said.

Cemal added that he was not allowed to take his medicines and was kept in the police station for two days without food or water.

"They brought us to Maritsa River after the two days and after beating us up they threw us in the river.

"Because the level of the water was not very high we crossed to the Turkish side where a Turkish soldier rescued us. He was very nice to us," Cemal said.

He added that they were brought to the immigration center and were given food.

Greek border troops, in violation of international treaties, forced out the migrants through Maritsa River to Turkey where they were caught by border guards and the gendarmerie forces near the Kapikule Border Gate.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called upon Greek authorities in a statement last month to fix this disregard for international law.

In the first 10 months of 2019, 25,404 irregular migrants were reportedly pushed back to Turkey from Greece.

* Writing by Dilara Hamit in Ankara