Standing up for a safer, humanitarian Europe

3 min readJan 25, 2019

This is a special message from Seán Binder — a trained search & rescue first responder who was imprisoned in Greece in 2018 for offering humanitarian assistance to refugees in danger of losing their lives. [1]

Last year I spent 106 days in a Greek prison. As a trained search and rescue first responder I coordinated the rescue efforts for refugees fleeing war on the Greek island of Lesvos.

It turns out that this humanitarian act is considered a punishable offence.

Human Rights Watch said my arrest represents an “effort to criminalize humanitarian activism on behalf of refugees and migrants in Greece.” [2[

European policies are effectively a death sentence for so many people. On average 12 people die every day trying to reach safety or reunite with their families. These laws also make people like me, who refuse to stand aside and watch men, women and children die — into criminals.

Now we have a chance to change this. A formal petition to the European Commission pushing for changes to the rules governing how people migrate to Europe — and how people like me providing humanitarian support are treated could force the changes badly needed. [3]

Each country has to collect a certain number of signatures for the formal petition to be considered by the European Commission. I know we can do it — but we need to hurry.

A Call to European Leaders

Refugee children are sleeping in tents on isolated islands while European leaders are busy arguing amongst themselves…

action.uplift.ie

It takes me one short car journey to be safe and sound with my family. But for so many refugees it means a treacherous journey across open seas. So many people have died taking this journey. It’s estimated 17,833 refugees and migrants are missing or dead in the Mediterranean since 2014. [4]

For this reason I felt compelled to work in Greece trying to prevent more deaths. I worked with hypothermic children, pregnant mothers, drowning fathers. It wasn’t easy but as a person who believes in humanity I believe I did the right thing.

Can you please work with me and Uplift members to make sure our call for changes to the laws to protect people like me from being criminalised for offering humanitarian support are taken seriously?