Kurdish migrant tells tale of humiliation and beatings by Greek police

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Kawa, who now lives in Istanbul, said he left the Kurdistan region for economic reasons, and that he is lucky to be alive after an ordeal of beatings and humiliation at the hands of Greek police.

“My wife was an employee, collecting her salary once every three months,” said Kawa, recalling his life in Kurdistan. “I used to work at a company too and the salary I was receiving did not meet our daily expenses and necessities,” he recounted, saying he decided to leave when they could no longer cover the rent and household expenses.

“We were obliged to sell our furniture to get enough money to leave Kurdistan for Europe,” said Kawa, who did not wish to be identified by his full name.

He said they found an Afghan smuggler who they paid to get them across Turkey and into Greece, from where many migrants head for Germany or Sweden.

But after leaving them at a spot and telling them to wait, the people smuggler disappeared. After walking for seven hours, they stumbled across the Greek border.

“We were about 30 people. We lit a fire and fell asleep, but then heard policemen coming for us on motorcycles. We could not run away and were forced to surrender to the police,” Kawa explained, adding they were all put in jail.

“The jail was very small. They put all of us in a room with another 20 people who were there before us. There was a very dirty toilet and nobody could stand the smell in the room. There was no light, and when we were eating food the leftovers would be left in the room.”  


“They did not respect as at all,” Kawa said. “They would say ‘you are Muslims, why are you migrating to non-Muslim countries? If we come to your countries you would behead us,’” said Kawa, recounting the insults of one of the policemen.

The miserable conditions in which they were kept forced the inmates to go on a strike. “We decided to start screaming at the policemen, because we feared we would die and had no other option but to try something,” Kawa said.

“One day, after we began pounding at the door, several policemen burst in and began beating us ruthlessly with electrical devices,” Kawa said.

“They were beating women, too, pulling their hair and dragging them on the ground around the room.”

Then one day, together with 20 other Kurdish and Arab migrants, they were forced into military trucks, put on a boat and sent to Turkey.

“The Greek police put 70 people into two boats that had no safety measures,” Kawa said. “We were lucky to all reach Turkey alive.”