"The first time he hit me on the back, and I fell down, then he hit me twice again, one time on my hand, one time on the ribs”

[The incident described in this testimony (violent apprehension and described pushbacks after arrival in Samos) was followed by a stay in the Samos CCAC descibed in this other testimony]

The respondent is a man aged 18-25 years old from Gambia. He reports to have arrived on the island of Samos between January and July 2023 with a group of 43 to 45 people. He reports that he experienced an attempted pushback from Samos. At the time of arrival, the respondent was still a minor.

The group consisted of mostly Sierra Leoneans, two people from Ghana, a few people from Haiti and him as the only Gambian. There were both men and women, two of the latter pregnant, and at least two children in the group. 

The respondent reports that, when he arrived, it was early in the morning. Reportedly, the group was looking for a place to hide, so they walked for more than 30 minutes from the water until reaching “the bush”. The respondent described the place as a forest on a mountain with rocky terrain and trees. The location was "not far from the road", and it was not possible to see far because there were a lot of trees. The respondent described the area as hilly, with some places that "you need to climb". Reportedly then “everyone went to hide in the bush, but far from each other”. Two people who spoke French left the place and called someone for rescue. 

The respondent reports that at some point someone shouted “the police'', and everyone started running, including the respondent. The group was not sitting in the same place at this point but scattered over the area in smaller groups, and the people behind the respondent were the first one who started running. Everybody ran in different directions. The respondent reports that he did not see the police at this point. 

The respondent states that he ran through a lot of plants with spines that made it difficult to run. "You have to push yourself very hard to keep going, it hurts." The respondent reports that his whole body was wet, and his trousers were heavy, which is why he could not run fast. While running, he noticed that men with dark face masks that covered their faces entirely except for the eyes, and that he identified as policemen, were running after the group, the respondent does not remember the exact number. The respondent reports that the men all wore dark uniforms, either blue or black, with no signs on them. 

Reportedly the respondent had not been running for more than two minutes when one man reached him and “hit me with a very hard stick". The respondent reports that the man was short and wore a dark uniform including blue trousers without signs, a vest with a lot of pockets, gloves, and a dark mask. The respondent reports that the stick the man used to hit him looked like a stick that had been used by the people who had pushed him back at his first attempt to come to Greece. Reportedly, back then, the perpetrators had used the stick to threaten the respondent when he had refused to hand them his belongings. 

The masked man hit the respondent three times: "the first time he hit me on the back, and I fell down, then he hit me twice again, one time on my hand, one time on the ribs.”  The respondent reports that the man did not communicate with him while hitting him. The respondent described that he did not feel pain instantly, but that night he could not sleep because of the pain. He reports that the day after the incident the body parts that had been hit were swollen and hurt, and that up until today the areas that had been hit still hurt sometimes. Reportedly, after hitting the respondent, the masked man left the respondent laying on the ground and continued running after other people. The respondent lost sight of the man, so he does not know if he reached the other people.

The respondent reports that he stood up and continued running for around five minutes to hide somewhere. He reached a small hill where four women already hid. Reportedly the respondent told the women that the spot is not good to hide at, but one of the women told him that they should stay there, so they stayed. After some time "when we were hiding, I heard someone walking, coming closer. I didn’t move." Reportedly a masked man appeared in front of the group and said in English 'Don't move'. The respondent reports that at this moment the group started running again, and at some point, he had to jump and hurt his knee. "That’s why I have a knee injury up to now." 

The respondent reportedly ran "not far" to another place to hide. He does not know where the other women went, but later in the evening when he had arrived in the Samos CCAC, he asked some other newly arrived people who informed him that one of the women was caught by the police and pushed back. The respondent talked to another man who informed him that his wife was pushed back together with 12 other people. The man informed the respondent that most of the people pushed back were Sierra Leoneans. 

While hiding, the respondent heard people he assumed to be the policemen communicating to other newly arrived people in English, but he could not see them. The respondent also heard the masked men communicating to each other, but he did not recognise the language they spoke. The respondent heard the men saying to the group of new arrivals ‘calm down’, and ‘where are your telephones?’. Some people replied saying ‘no telephone’. The respondent reports that he heard them ask “where are the others”. A woman started to cry for help. After some minutes, the police reportedly told the group to go with them, and it sounded like they left. "Then the place was calm. I didn’t see them." The respondent stayed hiding until around 6 pm in the evening time when it was already dark. 

The respondent reports that he and the others were hiding in the forest until they suddenly heard someone on a loudspeaker calling them to come out. The person speaking was reportedly someone from the arrival group who had gone to call an NGO for help earlier that day. The respondent followed the call and reached the road together with other newly arrived people. They were received by doctors from an NGO. The respondent reports that later in the evening the police came and took the women first and brought them to the camp, and after that, they took everybody else. 

“I was feeling pain. I couldn’t walk properly. That’s when I realised that I had pain. We are not seeing nothing. I don’t remember how we got to the camp.”