On the 3rd of April, 2009, in Igoumenitsa, men of the Coast Guarding police caused deadly injuries to a Kurdish man from Iraq. The eye-witnesses, who are foreigners without papers, describe them as "commandos with blue and army colours". The coast guards asked from the "illegal" immigrants to leave the area of the harbour. They did so, but they came back soon, since they were aiming to flee to Italy. The coast guards were waiting for them and, after arresting Arivan Osman Abdullah, 29year old, Kurdish from Iraq, they kept beating his head on a piece of concrete in the harbour, until he got inward bleeding.
He was transferred to the health center of Filiata, then to the Hadjicostas Hospital of Ioannina and then to Papanicolaou Hospital in Thessaloniki, where he had a head surgery; unfortunately he is lingering out of his life, since he has got mechanical support for every basic body function. According to the doctors, he has no chance of recovering and he will either die or or keep lingering, until a relative gives permission for disconnecting him from the machinery.