“They put a lot of pressure on me”

A man (about forty years old) was arrested in the evening of the 26th of February at the french-italian border near Menton. He was brought to the PAF police station at the border where he spent the night in the same cell as women and children that he did not know. In the morning of the following day he was interviewed by the French police for several hours. He testifies that he was asked very personal questions. When he refused to answer, he was put under a lot of pressure. “They have asked me questions about my personal life and my journey. I have asked them: Is this an asylum-interview? They refused to answer and to inform me about my rights. When I refused to answer something, they put me under a lot of pressure. I felt extremely intimidated. In the end they asked me to sign a paper in French that I did not understand. I told them that I do not want to sign anything. Then they told me that I was going to have a lot of problems all my life, if I do not sign this now.”