Amid international concern, UN calls on Greece not to prosecute rescuers of death boat victims

On Friday, January 13, the United Nations Human Rights Office appealed to the Greek authorities not to prosecute aid workers who saved the lives of migrants at sea.

The Greek authorities had begun the trial of 24 volunteers on charges of “espionage, fraud and illegal use of radio frequencies” during their volunteer work on the Greek island of Lesbos. According to the indictment, the volunteers were providing “direct assistance to networks organizing migrant smuggling” between 2016 and 2018.

The volunteers are also accused of “participating in a criminal organization” to aid “illegal immigration” and “helping networks to organize migrant smuggling,” and they have been charged with “espionage” for eavesdropping on the radios of the Greek coast guard and the European border control agency. These charges carry a penalty of up to 25 years.

Among the defendants is the swimmer and Syrian relief activist Sarah Mardini, who had arrived in Europe via what are known as death boats. This experience made her decide to volunteer to rescue refugees arriving across the sea and to volunteer with the Emergency Response Center International (ERCI). Her and her sister's story also inspired the Netflix movie “The Two Swimmers”.

The defendants were all associated with ERCI. Between 2016 and 2018, the group helped more than 1,000 people to reach safety and provided survivors with medical and other assistance on Lesbos. 

Adjournment of trial

The Greek police arrested Mardini in August 2018, and after spending more than 100 days in prison, she was released on bail. Last November, the court postponed the trial of the volunteers and suspended the case after the judge decided that the court “does not have the power to consider the case.”

Human Rights Watch believed that the trial began on the basis of “factual errors” contained in police reports, while the Public Prosecution Office recommended dropping some charges against the human rights defenders.

International appeals

Amnesty International called on the Greek authorities to drop all charges against the volunteers, saying they face unfair and baseless charges simply for helping refugees and migrants in danger of drowning at sea.

Nils Muižnieks, Director of Amnesty International’s European Regional Office, said, “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. All charges against the rescuers must be dropped without delay.”

In turn, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the charges against the volunteers to be dropped.

UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell told a news conference Thursday in Geneva that the trials are “extremely troubling as they criminalize life-saving work and set a dangerous precedent.”

She emphasized the already disturbing impact of these trials, as a number of human rights defenders and humanitarian organizations have been forced to stop their work in Greece and other EU countries.

Throssell said that there are currently no civil search and rescue organizations operating in Greece despite the urgent need for them in the eastern Mediterranean, and she expressed the concerns of the United Nations Human Rights Office about the use of anti-smuggling legislation in a number of European countries to criminalize both migrants and those who assist them.

The Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration has calculated that there have been nearly 1,700 deaths and disappearances on the eastern Mediterranean route since 2014, including nearly 500 children.