Greece

The punishment for ‘facilitating unauthorised entry’ into Greece, regulated by Articles 29 and 30 of Law 4251/2014 of the ‘Immigration and Social Integration Code’, is currently among the harshest in the EU. The usual charge brought against the alleged ‘boat drivers’ is a serious crime which results in a sentence of ten years imprisonment and up to 15 additional years imprisonment for each person transported, and whose life was allegedly endangered.

Data from the study “A legal vacuum - the systematic criminalisation of migrants for driving a boat or car to Greece” by Julia Winkler (borderline-europe).

• At least 1374 people were arrested for smuggling in 2022 in Greece.
• On average, trials last for 37 minutes, which drops to 17 minutes in trials with state-appointed lawyers
• The shortest trial we documented lasted 6 minutes
• Trials lead to an average prison sentence of 46 years and a fine of 332.209 Euros
• As of February 28, 2023 there are 2154 people who are detained in Greek prisons with the accusation of smuggling (which remains the second largest group per crime)
• Nearly 90% of them are third-country nationals (1897).

Reports

• "A legal vacuum - the systematic criminalisation of migrants for driving a boat or car to Greece"(2023) by borderline-europe.
• Incarcerating the Marginalised - The Fight Against Alleged "Smugglers on the Greek Hotspot Islands (2019) by borderline-europe in cooperation with Deportation Monitoring Aegean and Aegean Migrant Solidarity.
• Criminalization of flight and escape aid (2017) by borderline-europe.

Cases

• Homayoun Sabetara; Campaign for the release of Homayoun Sabetara [by Free Houmayoun campaign].
• Pylos9; Campaign for the release of Pylos9 [by #FreePylos9 campaign].
• Hanad Abdi Mohammad; Episode 35: Sentenced to 142-years for doing ‘what any human would do’ [by The Civil Fleet podcast (27.02.2023)].
• N. and Hasan (Samos2); "The real crime is the border regime - Justice for N. & Hasan"[by Free The Samos2 campaign].
• Kheiraldin, Abdallah and Mohamad (Paros3); "#Paros3 were sentenced to a total of 439 years for steering the boat" [by Aegean Migrant Solidarity (12.05.2022)].
• K.S. (Lesvos); "Syrian refugee sentenced to 52 years in prison on Lesbos" [by You Can't Evict Solidarity, Aegean Migrant Solidarity and borderline-europe (26.04.2021].
• G.N. (Samos); "Samos: 23 year-old Syrian faces 10 years imprisonment as 'boat driver' only for having turned his GPS on" [by borderline (15.02.2022)].
• Kalamata2; "May 19: trial in Kalamata - Another (partial) victory against the EU border regime!" [by alarmphone-Watch The Med (16.05.2022].
• Mousafir (Komotini); "Because Mousafir resisted a pushback, he was sentenced to 47 years in prison" [by borderline-europe, Can’t Evict Solidarity, Aegean Migrant Solidarity and Mobile Info Team (09.06.2022)].
• Nour Al-Sameh (Perya); "Free Nour – criminalization of refugees as human traffickers" [by Can't Evict Solidarity (05.10.2019)].
• Amir and Razuli (Lesvos); "Justice For Amir & Razuli: The Prosecution Of Alleged Boat Drivers" [by Legal Center Lesvos].

Press publications:

• "The Human Toll of Europe’s ‘War on Smuggling’" by Julie Bourdin, Leon Spring, Lorenzo D’Agostino and Stavros Malichudis (New Lines Magazine, 13.12.2022).
• "How European courts are wrongfully prosecuting asylum seekers as smugglers" by Ottavia Spaggiari, Isobel Thompson and Iliana Papangeli (The New Humanitarian, 01.09.2022).
• "The case of the Paros 3: How Greece is criminalising asylum seekers" by Nadine Talaat (The New Arab, 27.05.2022).

Organisations