Parallel to our solidarity work for Amir and Razouli who are accused for “smuggling” in Greece we publish this recherche report of bordermonitoring.eu about the criminalisation of “smuggling” in Greece.

“The following report outlines the system of punishment and incarceration of
migrants who are accused of human smuggling at the EU-external border in
the Aegean. It bears witness to the fates of people who have been sentenced
to life long imprisonment in Greece. Some of them were not aware of having
committed a felony crime by driving a boat with asylum seekers from Greece
to Turkey; others were only crossing the border to seek asylum in the European Union themselves.

Upon arrival, they were arrested, often beaten, and held for months in pre-trial detention, until they were convicted in a court procedure violating basic standards of fairness. The harsh criminalization described in this report cannot be understood outside of the broader framework of the anti-smuggling policies of the European border regime, which will
be analysed in this report alongside narratives on human smuggling, as well as the evolution of anti-smuggling legislation within the European Union.”

The full report can be found here.