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.
Migrants often try to cut their dinghy so that the coast guards are forced to save them from sinking. In this way they are sure that they won't be sent back to Turkey.