Mitra
Mitra is an asylum seeker from Afghanistan. He was 16 years old when he tried to reach Greece in a small inflatable dinghy with other people.
The Greek coast guard discovered them when they were about 300 meters away from the Island of Lesbos. The police threw them a rope and Mitra and the others were taken on board the coast guard's vessel.
"We were tired, fully exhausted, and only wanted to sleep. We lay down on the floor. The police shouted ‘don't sleep, sit up!' They kicked us."
The police brutally continued as they were taken "The police shouted at us: ›Malaka‹ and other swearwords which we couldn't understand. We pleaded with them: ‘We are humans, please help us'." The police threw the bread, water, and everything else that was left in their dinghy, into the water.
About two kilometres from the Turkish coast they threw the dinghy out. Then Mitra and the others were violently forced back into it. The police boat drove them back into international waters. They had made a small hole in the rubber dinghy and only gave them one oar.
"We paddled desperately to reach the coast, but we were so exhausted. We gave up just after an hour. We thought we were going to die. The water was very still. After a while we fell asleep." A big boat came and rescued them.
(Source: Pro Asyl)