After six days of walking, the respondent was apprehended by 10 officers in Greek police uniform in Alexandroupolis. She describes how they first started beating the group members with batons before taking all their belongings from them: “all my clothes, my phone, my money, all of it, whether you are a man or a woman”.

The respondent also recalls how the male officers searched her body several times, saying “I did not like that at all, this is not good for me, they feel my body, this is not good”. 

She continues to describe that the officers got a car which she cannot remember any details of and drove the group to a detention site which she describes not as an official police station but a “one room prison”. In this one room, several other people had been detained when they entered. The respondent estimates the number to have been something between 40 and 60. Among them were several other women and many babies and minors, also several old men. 

The respondent describes being detained for one full night and one day without food or water. The following evening, several officers came with a lorry. They drove for around one hour and arrived at the river. When they arrived, many officers were present there, both those in Greek police uniform and those dressed in black wearing balaclavas. The respondent was searched again and explained (in distress) how one of the officers in Greek police uniform tried to take her away from the group while groping her. He tried to convince her but she refused and eventually he let her go back to the others. 

When asked what happened then, the respondent replies “we go to the water” and laughs. She explains that they were taken to the river by one boat 8 people at a time. The families with babies were driven all the way to the Turkish shore, but the others were only driven halfway across and then told to jump into the water. 

The respondent does not recall the exact place of the pushback but recalls that she arrived in Ipsala after walking for a while.