Criminalising assistance and solidarity: the ERCI case and beyond Polly Pallister-Wilkins Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Amsterdam Refugee Observatory, 14 September 2018 http://refugeeobservatory.aegean.gr/en/criminalising-%CE%B1ssistanceand-solidarity-erci-case-and-beyond The recent arrest of NGO workers and solidarity activists by the Greek police, among them members of Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), has caused consternation amongst migrant activists, humanitarians and interested observers alike. The arrests come amid other attempts around Europe and the Mediterranean to prevent the assistance and rescue of life seekers by non-state actors. The recent efforts of the new Italian government to prevent the disembarkation of search and rescue (SAR) vessels in Italian ports and Gibraltar’s decision at the end of August to strip the SOS Méditerranée vessel the Aquarius of its flag have cast a pall over the last few years of a politics that have attempted in practice to place the lives of migrants and the risks they faced at the border front and centre.1 Away from the spectacular politics of search and rescue at sea, there have been repeated attempts by French authorities to clamp down on solidarity activities, including the arrest of activists working in the difficult Alpine terrain along the Italian border and in the better-known Calais.2 Beyond Europe, US Border Patrol has repeatedly tried to interfere in the activities of solidarity activists operating in the harsh deserts of the US-Mexico borderland by for example slashing the life-saving water bottles left for life seekers, while activists from No More Deaths claim cases of repeated ‘intimidation, harassment, and surveillance’.3 But what can we learn from these cases and this apparent criminalisation of assistance and solidarity? Of course, attempts by state authorities to prevent solidarity and rescue activities by nonstate actors is not new. Any discussion of recent events routinely returns to the 2004 Cap Anamur case, when the captain and first officer of the Cap Anamur vessel belonging to 1
SOS Méditerranée, ‘SOS MEDITERRANEE urges EU leaders to guarantee safe port of disembarkation for people rescued at sea,’ 23 June 2018, https://sosmediterranee.com/sos-mediterranee-urges-eu-leaders-to-guarantee-safeports-of-disembarkation-for-people-rescued-at-sea/ and Katy Budge, ‘Gibraltar’s decision to strip flag from Aquarius rescue ship undermines ancient seafaring principle of solidarity’, The Conversation, 7 September 2018, http://theconversation.com/gibraltars-decision-to-strip-flag-from-aquarius-rescue-shipundermines-ancient-seafaring-principle-of-solidarity-101928 2 Clara Hernanz, ‘When helping a refugee gets you threatened with a prison sentence,’ Vice, 8 June 2018 https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/zm8wa5/europe-migrantrefugee-activists-jail-threat 3 No More Deaths, ‘Part 2, Interference with Humanitarian Aid: Death and Disappearance on the US-Mexico Border,’ 2018 http://www.thedisappearedreport.org/uploads/8/3/5/1/83515082/disappeared_report _part_2.pdf 1