“The case against rescue volunteers in Greece is part of a distressing pattern of attacks across the European Union on humanitarian efforts to help migrants and refugees,” Van Esveld said. “Solidarity with people fleeing persecution, war, and serious human rights violations should be encouraged and celebrated, not criminalized.”
Our Story in the News
2024
The Guardian
InfoMigrants
InfoMigrants
Inkstick
“There is now an effort to enshrine the criminalisation of solidarity and search and rescue in European law, although the obligation to help those in need at sea and the right to seek refuge is enshrined in international law. These obligations and rights have been sacrificed by the efforts to strengthen national borders and ‘fortress Europe’.”
BBC
Al Jazeera English
Le Monde
DW
CNN
POLITICO Europe
Newstalk
The Irish Times
Irish Independent
South China Morning Post
Neos Kosmos
Amnesty International
Dazed
2023
The New York Times
Amnesty International UK
Irish Examiner
Global Citizen
InfoMigrants
FRANCE 24 English
InfoMigrants
Human Rights Watch
CNN
The Irish Times
“While the Greek authorities use the justice system to unfairly criminalize those helping people at sea and on land, they continue to carry out illegal and sometimes deadly pushbacks of migrants across the Greek border and seek to punish those who call them out.”
2022
Human Rights Watch
“The case against two of the defendants, Sarah Mardini and Sean Binder, effectively criminalizes life-saving humanitarian solidarity for people on the move and is riddled with procedural flaws that undermine their rights to due process and a fair trial.”
