Two dozen aid workers, including a German-born Irish man, went on trial in Greece on Thursday, on charges including migrant smuggling, in a case that rights groups have dismissed as a baseless attempt to outlaw aid for refugees heading to Europe.
The trial on the island of Lesbos comes as European Union countries, including Greece - which saw more than one million people reaching its shores during Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015-2016 - are tightening rules on migration as right-wing parties gain ground across the bloc.
The 24 defendants, affiliated with the Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), a nonprofit search-and-rescue group that operated on Lesbos from 2016 to 2018, face multi-year prison sentences. The felony charges include involvement in a criminal group facilitating the illegal entry of migrants and money laundering linked to the group’s funding.
Among them is Seán Binder, who grew up in Co Kerry, spent 100 days behind bars after his arrest in 2018. Mr Binder began volunteering for ERCI in 2017.
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Sarah Mardini is one of two Syrian sisters who saved refugees in 2015 by pulling their sinking dinghy to shore and whose story inspired the popular 2022 Netflix movie The Swimmers.
Ms Mardini and Mr Binder were arrested in 2018 and spent more than 100 days in pre-trial detention before being released pending trial.
“The trial’s result will define if humanitarian aid will be judicially protected from absurd charges or whether it will be left to the maelstrom of arbitrary narratives by prosecuting authorities,” defence lawyer Zacharias Kesses told Reuters.
Greece has toughened its stance on migrants. Since 2019, the centre-right government has reinforced border controls with fences and sea patrols, and in July it temporarily suspended processing asylum applications for migrants arriving from north Africa.
Anyone caught helping migrants to shore today may face charges including facilitating illegal entry into Greece or helping a criminal enterprise under a 2021 law passed as part of Europe’s efforts to counter mass migration from the Middle East and Asia.
[ ‘No more bleeding hearts’: Kerry-raised NGO worker among those on trial in GreeceOpens in new window ]
In 2023, a Greek court dropped espionage charges against the defendants.
Rights groups have criticised the case as baseless and lacking in evidence. “The case depends on deeply-flawed logic,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
“Saving lives at sea is mischaracterised as migrant smuggling, so the search-and-rescue group is a criminal organisation, and therefore, the group’s legitimate fundraising is money laundering.”
Mr Binder’s case was discussed in the Dáil on Thursday.
Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice asked if the Government raised its concerns with the Greek authorities. He said that instead of receiving a bravery award along with 23 other volunteers for saving lives, Mr Binder ended up in jail facing “serious charges, including people smuggling, and membership of a criminal organisation”.
The Cork South-Central TD said a conviction would send a message that “immigrant lives are so worthless that they should not be saved from drowning; that if you don’t stand back and watch them die, you’ll end up with 20 years in prison”.
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman described Mr Binder’s crime as “volunteering as rescue workers and saving the lives of those who are distress at sea”.
“In the seven years since he was arrested, Seán Binder has posed this question: ‘If you come across somebody in distress, what do you check first - their pulse or their passport?’”
Tánaiste Simon Harris said: “I won’t say anything regarding an ongoing case”, but “consular services and support of our embassy is always, ever active”.
He wanted to speak directly to the department on the issue “because of the active nature of the case”. Mr Harris said: “I appreciate the seriousness of it and I appreciate the importance of timely intervention”. —With reporting from Reuters
