Activists gathered outside a courthouse on the island of Lesbos, Greece, on Tuesday holding a banner declaring “Saving Lives is Not a Crime.” Just inside, a long-awaited trial got underway in which 24 humanitarian aid workers and volunteers face serious charges and lengthy prison sentences for their shoreline response work helping refugees at sea.
Among the defendants are Seán Binder, a German-born Irish rescue diver, and Sarah Mardini, a Syrian refugee-turned-aid worker whose life inspired the Netflix film “The Swimmers.”
Human rights groups have decried the case as “farcical” and say it “perversely misrepresents the group’s search-and-rescue operations as a smuggling crime ring.” All the defendants maintain their innocence.
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About the author
Moira Lavelle
Moira Lavelle is an independent reporter based in Athens, Greece. She covers migration, borders, gender, and politics, and she has written previously for The Independent, Al Jazeera, The Times of London, VICE, and other publications.