Last week, a court case took place in Lesvos, Greece, against 24 aid workers rescuing migrants at sea. Asylum seekers were coming from Turkey after a long route from the Middle East or Africa. According to the OHCHR, the charges against humanitarian workers and volunteers that were working for a Greek NGO called Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI) are in connection with their actions in rescuing migrants at sea and include several alleged misdemeanors related to the facilitation of migrant smuggling (1). Other crimes of which they have been accused are espionage and forgery, fraud, membership of a criminal organization and money laundering.
After helping more than a thousand people from a shipwreck, people who were escaping from war, persecution and natural disasters, which severely hampered their lives leaving no choice but to flee, and a dangerous journey to reach safety in Europe, the NGO, following such accusation and the relative subpoena, was forced to suspend its rescuing operations while the accused faced the long-awaited judicial trail.
According to Amnesty International, “this trial reveals how the Greek authorities will go to extreme lengths to deter humanitarian assistance and discourage migrants and refugees from seeking safety on the country’s shores, something which we see in a number of European countries. It is farcical that this trial is even taking place” (2). It is indeed preposterous that people who save the lives of migrants are tried for similar crimes. As a matter of facts, sued aid workers were facing a trial for having helped asylum seekers to reach the European Union. To save lives of people in jeopardy at sea and offering them humanitarian assistance should never be considered outlaw and a criminal case constructed against such people. Such proceedings are deeply worrying in that they criminalize lifesaving activities and set a dangerous precedent (1).
This notwithstanding, the trial seems to have been concluded with the dropping of the espionage charges against the 24 ERCI aid workers but, unfortunately, the investigations into criminal charges are still pending (3). This court case is an example of how the criminal justice system can be distorted into punishing and discouraging the work of human rights defenders. The prosecution will now be referred to the public prosecutor (4).
Among the 24 aid workers facing trails, there were Sarah Mardini, a Syrian refugee, and Seán Binder. The former, became known when, having suffered a shipwreck while trying to reach the same island, Lesvos, where she returned a few years later to work with ERCI, she and her sister Yusra rescued the people who were on the boat with them. Yusra, later, went on to swim for the Refugee team at the Olympics. Her story was recently brought to life in the Netflix film “The Swimmers” (5).
Amnesty International has stated that for the 24 ERCI aid workers, the statute of limitations for the remaining misdemeanor charges will expire in February 2023. The investigation into felony charges against the humanitarian workers, including facilitation of irregular entry, membership of a criminal organization and fraud, remains pending (4).
Once it is established that crimes related to human trafficking, money laundering and others crimes were not committed by this non-governmental organization, it becomes evident how rather worrying this judicial process is because it has criminalized a humanitarian work whose purpose is to ensure that people’s lives are saved when they are in danger after long journey by makeshift means of transport, such as rubber dinghies, which, due to overcrowding, cause shipwrecks and result in the death of many people. There is no doubt that this judicial process has set a dangerous precedent in a European Union that increasingly behaves like a “fortress” instead of actually living up to the inclusive policies it proposes.
References:
1) https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/01/trial-human-rights-defenders-greece-helping-migrants
2) https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/01/greece-farcical-trial-of-rescue-volunteers-begins-next-week/
3) https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/greek-court-drops-espionage-charges-against-24-migrant-rescuers/2787038
4) https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/greece-authorities-must-drop-all-charges-against-refugee-rescue-volunteers
5) https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/10/europe/migrant-aid-workers-mardini-binder-trial-intl/index.html
By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
