Greece. 04th of September 2009. Island of Lesvos, also known as Mytilini, next to the Turkish border.
Patrols with the greek coast guards at night. At 5am, they caught 16 Afghani illegal immigrants who were crossing the seven miles which separate Assos (Turkish side) from Molyvos (Greek side).
They all paid 2500 dollars to a trafficant to get to a small dinghy and $600 each to pay the corrupt policemen who threaten to send them back to their country.
A few minutes after they were embarked on the Greek coast guards boat.
The captain saw the Turkish coast guards boat.
Thay had seen the illegal immigrants at sea without having arrested them.
The captain was so upset that he tried to call the Turkish boat but they didn't answer. The two boats remained face to face for at least 20 minutes during which the Afghans were terrified to be sent back to Turkey. The young women were begging the captain not to give them back to the Turkish police who had beaten them and mistreated them. The captain finally left and dropped them to Mytilini but he told the photographer that if the Turkish boat had answered, he would have sent the immigrants back to them. When the reporter asked why would he do that as it was clear that the immigrants were frightened by Turkish police, especially women, and that they could be victims of their brutality, he replied: "did you hear anyone asking for political asylum? No! So, I am doing my job."