10 Deadly Hazards About 71%, (35 interviewees) reported that they almost died during their hazardous journeys to Europe. Harking back at the traumatic incidents they had faced, each one of the 35 deportees told they had lost hope for life at one point and their survival was a mere miracle. First, drowning in the sea between Turkey and Greece was the most frequently cited risk factor for potential death. The incidents at sea were, in large part, blamed on the smugglers who had regularly overloaded unreliable dinghies several times beyond their capacities, often at gunpoint. In certain cases, the smugglers had shot dead the passengers who had refused to get on overloaded dinghies. A deportee from Helmand, described his ordeal in the Greek sea: We were still far from the Greek Samos Island. Our guide, the so-called smuggler, got scared as he saw the coast-guard in the far distance. As he redirected the dinghy, it deflated. 45 people began drowning. We struggled in the sea for three hours. What prevented us from dying was our swimming safety jackets…We were all struggling to stay alive. Ultimately, our screams alerted the Greek coast guards. Two guards jumped into the sea, and took us one by one to safety. They operation lasted almost a whole night1. Second, extreme weather condition, either extremely cold or extremely hot, along the Iran- Turkey borders, and the Turkey- Bulgaria and Serbia borders, were the second bigger hazard. A deportee from Nangarhar described is suffering as follows: We were left stranded one whole night inside a vast wood after the Bulgarian police captured our smuggler. That night was excruciatingly cold. The next day the police came and took us to their compound… our hands and feet had splits as a result of the cold and they were bleeding. When a Bulgarian police saw our wounds, he began weeping. He turned on the heaters and provided us with food2. Third, slipping off steep cliffs, high rocks and dangerous tracks, in particular between the Iran- Tukey border has been the third biggest risk factor. Another deportee from Nangarhar recounted his story: It took us two days and one night to walk to the Turkish border. The Iran-Turkey border, fended off by barded wire, is extremely dangerous. I saw two people dying right at the border point, one electroluted and the other one because of the heat. We were a group of 35 people. The Turkish border patrols opened fire on us at night. In the wake of the fury of shots, three people, one of whom was my friend, slipped off the high rocks. He has been missing since3. Suffocation inside transport trailers and buses with no ventilation was the fourth risks faced by refugees on their way to Europe. A deportee from Mazar shared his story with us: When I wanted to go from Greek to Italy, the smuggler put me inside a cotton trailer. I almost died because of lack of oxygen and ventilation and the air inside the trailer was boiling. I tore up the trailer’s tarpaulin and called the driver for help. The scared driver took me off the trailer and 1. Interview with R. M., deportee, Helmand-Herat Provinces, April 2018 2. Interview, S. M., Nangarhar, September 2018 3. Interview with B. O. , deportee, Nangarhar, July 2018