HELP IS NO CRIME : PEOPLE SHARE THEIR STORIES OF BEING ACCUSED, INTIMIDATED AND PUNISHED FOR HELPING MIGRANTS
▻http://picum.org/home-slide-show/testimonies-people-share-stories-accused-intimidated-punished-helping-migrant
Individuals and members of organisations who provide humanitarian assistance and help to undocumented migrants frequently face intimidation, accusations and punishments across Europe, due to policies which prohibit the ‘facilitation of irregular migration’.
These stories of migrant supporters aim to show what these policies mean in practice for civil society actors as well as for migrants and the impact of criminalising solidarity.
The testimonies were gathered as part of the research project “Anti-Smuggling Policies and their Intersection with Humanitarian Assistance and Social Trust”, mandated by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and coordinated by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and PICUM in cooperation with Queen Mary University London (QMUL).
We continue to gather testimonies which you can share with us confidentially. We will publish them without names or details that might put individuals at risk. You can share your stories in written or visual formats (photo, video) by sending them to Elisabeth Schmidt-Hieber, PICUM Communications Officer at: elisabeth@picum.org
You can also share the testimonies within your networks and on social media with the hash tag: #HelpIsNoCrime
Greece: “We were taken to the local police station and held for several hours”
“We were personally ‘detained’ (taken to the local police station and held for several hours) by police authorities simply for being present during the eviction of an informal camp, after having worked with the same population for 5 months. There are countless instances of police obstructing access to asylum-seeker/refugee/migrant populations for civil society actors looking to provide any kind of service.
In response to the barriers set up by local law enforcement and ministry policies, we changed our operations to outside official camps (rather than navigating the bureaucratic labyrinth constructed by local policies).
Access to the refugee population is something that has become increasingly difficult, and poses a huge risk to the work that we do.”
– Service provider (medical aid, legal aid, shelter etc.), at points where migrants first arrive (border areas, hot spots, sea ports)-
