Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 18 January 2023 - Strasbourg

Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

  Grace O’Sullivan (Verts/ALE). – Mr President, ‘close and control’ – this is what the manager of Lesbos refugee camp last week told me was their policy for dealing with thousands of refugees. In a camp of barbed wire and shipping containers, it is a policy of a prison.

Off the coast, illegal pushbacks of people in distress continue unabated. Locals and humanitarians in Lesbos recounted how masked men have been seen violently kidnapping refugees. Meanwhile, around 40 organisations work in constant fear of criminalisation after the example was made of Seán Binder, Sarah Mardini and over 20 search and rescue workers.

Any new policy on migration and asylum must include protection for humanitarians, and immediately end the vast prison camp system we have established on EU borders. As long as desperate people flee desperate situations, ‘close and control’ does not work.