The European Union Wants to Criminalize Volunteers Who Help Refugees on Greek Islands - The Pappas Post
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Statewatch, a European civil liberties watchdog, has released confidential documents that reveal that the European Union is drawing up plans to criminalize charities and volunteers who help refugees arriving on Greek islands.
It is yet another desperate attempt by European leaders who have tried— and failed— to create and implement a comprehensive and unified plan amongst its fractious members to handle almost 1 million refugees who have arrived over the past year.
The documents revealed that EU interior ministers who met in Amsterdam on January 27, 2016 want to criminalize as “smugglers” charities, local people, volunteers and scores of international humanitarians who have traveled to Greece to help pull drowning refugees from the sea and feed and offer dry clothes as they land on Greek islands.
Instead, the Council wants to create a state-run mechanism that forces people to register and work under EU-sanctioned rescue and relief plans.
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, stated that “The (European) Council proposals would criminalise NGOs, local people and volunteers who have worked heroically to welcome refugees when the EU institutions did nothing, while other plans would incorporate those who “register” with the police to work under state structures. In a humane and caring EU it should not be necessary to “register” to offer help and care to people who have suffered so much already.”
