Standing with Seán Binder: Defending the Right to Rescue Lives
The prosecution of Seán Binder clearly reveals injustice-punishing lawful rescue work that aligns with international maritime and human rights law. Seán Binder is a law graduate and human rights activist who volunteered in Lesbos as a rescue diver. Seán and his team provided first aid and immediate support to refugees in distress, offering life-saving assistance to people fleeing war, persecution, and hardship with no other way to reach safety. For this humanitarian work, in 2018, Seán and 23 other aid workers faced criminal charges in Greece. Seán spent 106 days in pre-trial detention, and his case is still ongoing. The trial will take place at Mitilíni Courthouse on 4 December 2025. He could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
Seán Binder’s background, having been raised by the sea in Ireland and trained as a scuba diver, gave him the skills to volunteer as a search and rescue member. After his master’s degree, he joined a Greek search-and-rescue NGO, the Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI). His role was coordinated with Greek authorities, following official procedures. He cooperated with the Coast Guard, coordinating rescue operations with officers and communicating information about ERCI rescue crews.
In 2025, 9% of new arrivals in Greece were received on Lesbos Island.[1] As of May 2025, the population of Lesbos Island’s camp reached 1,614 individuals.[2] Various organizations work in Lesbos to provide food and protection for those in need.
According to the latest statistics released by PICUM (2024), at least 91 people were prosecuted in the EU for crossing borders irregularly in the Mediterranean in 2024.[3] In the same year, 2,200 people died or went missing while attempting to reach Europe. [4]As these numbers are a direct result of a lack of safe routes, the work of humanitarian workers is increasingly criminalized. In 2024 alone, 142 individuals faced criminal or administrative proceedings in the EU for acts of solidarity, 88 of whom were search and rescue members. Alarmingly, this criminalization can extend to anyone showing compassion, even when acting in accordance with international and European law.
The criminalization of solidarity in Europe diminishes “European values” in practice. As Seán has stated, “We are told borders must be defended to ‘protect values’, but abandoning people to drown means those values are already lost. The act of ‘preserving’ them erodes them with deadly consequences.”
Seán was deeply moved upon receiving a solidarity email from Pastor Norbert Valley, a compassionate evangelical minister from Le Locle, a small town in Switzerland’s Jura Mountains. Valley faced prosecution under Article 116 of Switzerland’s Foreign Nationals and Integration Act for an act of simple humanity: allowing a rejected asylum seeker from Togo, who had attended his church services, to sleep in the church’s shelter during harsh winter storms. He was eventually acquitted. [5]When something so plainly kind is criminalized, society is in grave trouble.
The transnational nature of “criminalizing solidarity” was also illustrated by Captain Carola Rackete in 2019. As captain of the NGO vessel Sea-Watch 3, Rackete rescued 53 migrants off the coast of Libya. She faced prosecution under Article 12(1) and (3)(A) of Decree-Law No 268/1998 (aiding and abetting illegal immigration) and Article 1099 of the Navigation Act (failure to comply with the order not to enter Italian territorial waters issued under Legislative Decree No 53/2019 by the master of the warship used as a police vessel of the Guardia di Finanza). This legal action was invalidated by an Italian court in 2021, which dismissed all charges and affirmed that her decision to dock was a required duty under international law to save lives.[6]
In Lesbos, Seán and 23 others are facing trial on serious felonies: smuggling, membership in a criminal organization, and money laundering. If convicted, they face up to 20 years and immediate custody. For smuggling, Seán faces several counts, many from before he even started his humanitarian work in Greece; in fact, he had not been to Greece. This poses significant problems: Seán cannot face charges for acts that are not his. Without that nexus, those charges must be dismissed.
The judicial process has been marred by serious errors, including the failure to translate the initial indictment into a language the defendants could understand, despite their rights under Greek law and international standards like Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. A missing page and the use of numbers instead of names in the indictment further obscured the charges. Worse, inadequate or absent interpreters during court proceedings left non-Greek-speaking defendants, including Seán Binder, unable to engage fully, a breach of fair trial guarantees, which the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, has explicitly categorized as a form of judicial harassment against human rights defenders.[7]
Leading legal experts have condemned the prosecution’s case. Edward Fitzgerald KC of Doughty Street Chambers and Gráinne Mellon of Garden Court Chambers’ International Human Rights Team, commissioned by the law firm Leigh Day to provide a formal legal opinion, have stated unequivocally that “there is no evidential basis for the charges against Seán Binder and his co-defendants. The accusations of smuggling and criminal organization membership are not merely unsupported by evidence, but are contradicted by the facts of their coordinated, life-saving work. To proceed on this basis would constitute a serious miscarriage of justice.”[8]
Burak Batuhan Karakus, Head of Legal Affairs at Human Rights Solidarity, has issued a compelling statement:
“The prosecution of Seán Binder is not a procedural oversight; it is a calculated violation of justice, engineered to undermine the core principles of international human rights law. This legal harassment broadcasts a chilling message across Europe: compassion is now a punishable act. We must never forget Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian whose lifeless body on a Turkish beach in 2015 exposed the lethal cost of the lack of safe, legal pathways. [9]His death condemns failed policies. Yet, to criminalize those who work tirelessly to avert such tragedies, who race to ensure no more children like Alan perish, is a profound betrayal.”
This practice abandons our shared humanity, penalizing the obligation to preserve life and sacrificing lives to the merciless altar of border politics.
To the Greek authorities, we appeal with respect for the formidable challenges you navigate: this prosecution contradicts Greece’s noble legacy of solidarity. You, the compassionate people of Greece, have opened your hearts and communities for years, sheltering tens of thousands. You understand the human toll of this crisis intimately. We urge you to realign this judicial process with that ethos of humanity and the clear protections for humanitarian aid under the EU Facilitation Directive 2002/90/EC[10]. Drop these charges and uphold the right to save lives.
International organizations have described this as the criminalization of humanitarian acts; the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for all charges to be dropped.
As Human Rights Solidarity, we urge everyone to follow closely, stand in solidarity, and monitor the trial of Seán Binder and 23 other humanitarian volunteers on 4 December in Lesbos at Mitilíni Courthouse and to call on the authorities to uphold European laws fairly, based on a fair and factual basis.
With hope for justice.
BY BURAK BATUHAN KARAKUS
References:
[1] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). (2025, October 9). Greece Sea Arrivals Dashboard: August 2025. https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/europe-sea-arrivals/location/24489.
[2] EuropeCares. (2025, May 15). Monthly Report: Paréa Lesvos – April 2025. https://www.europecares.org/post/monthly-report-par%C3%A9a-lesvos-april-2025.
[3] PICUM. (2025, April). Criminalisation of Migration and Solidarity in the EU: 2024 Report. https://picum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Criminalisation-of-migration-and-solidarity-in-the-EU-2024-report.pdf.
[4] International Organization for Migration (IOM). (2025, January). Missing Migrants Project: Mediterranean Region Data Snapshot (2024). https://missingmigrants.iom.int/region/mediterranean.
[5] Evangelical Focus. (2020, March 12). Swiss pastor who helped rejected asylum seeker acquitted. https://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/5176/swiss-pastor-who-helped-rejected-asylum-seeker-acquitted.
[6] DW. (2021, December 23). Italy Drops Carola Rackete Charges. https://www.dw.com/en/italy-drops-charges-against-sea-watch-captain-carola-rackete/a-60245299.
[7] United Nations Human Rights Council. (2020, January 9). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders: Judicial Harassment (A/HRC/43/51). https://undocs.org/A/HRC/43/51.
[8] Leigh Day. (2021, November 15). Legal Opinion on the Case of Seán Binder. https://www.leighday.co.uk/latest-updates/news/2021-news/greek-authorities-urged-to-review-the-criminal-case-against-search-and-rescue-volunteer/.
[9] Smith, H. (2015, September 3). Shocking images of drowned Syrian boy show tragic plight of refugees. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image-of-drowned-syrian-boy-shows-tragic-plight-of-refugees
[10] Council Directive 2002/90/EC of 28 November 2002 defining the facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and residence, Official Journal L 328. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32002L0090
