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Smugglers sell you an easy ride. But once on the banks of the Evros River, which separates Greece and Turkey, most migrants trying to reach Europe are disappointed: they have to cross the river and avoid running into Greek border guards or they will be beaten up and sent back. Across the river. Our observer, a young Syrian migrant named Mohammed Zikeh, told us about the challenges he experienced during his journey trying to cross the river.
Mohammed Zikeh works as a construction worker in Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey. Between August and September 2021, he made four attempts to cross the border between Turkey and Greece, the gateway to Europe.
To do this, he first traveled to Edirne, in the extreme west of the country, before reaching the banks of the Evron River, the natural border between Turkey and Greece. But every time he crossed, the Greek border guards brutally beat him before forcing him to cross the river back to Turkey. Zikeh documented part of his journey on his TikTok channel. In his videos, he shows the marks on his thighs and knee from the beating he received from border guards.
The Greek authorities deny the violence, but illegal and violent deportations to the Turkish border, known as ‘push-backs’, are very common according to Human Rights NGOs. About 98% of rejections are accompanied by torture and degrading treatment, according to Border Violence Monitoring Network, in a study published Nov. 1.
About 200 unidentified migrants are buried in a cemetery in Sidro, a small Greek town a few kilometers from the Turkish border.
Last August, the Greek government announced the completion of a 40-kilometer wall along its land border with Turkey. A barrier of almost 12 kilometers had already been erected between the two countries in 2016. An electronic surveillance system and the recruitment of 1,200 additional border guards on land and in the Aegean Sea complete the anti-migrant system, according to Infomigrantes.
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