Europeans defy law to smuggle in refugees
Harsh sentences for trafficking don’t deter activists determined to help
LESBOS, GREECE Police recently arrested a Spanish couple taking an early morning ferry to Italy from the northwestern port city of Igoumenitsa with eight refugees hiding inside their camper van.
The pair said they knew what they were doing was illegal. They didn’t care, they told a judge this month as they pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges against them. They didn’t receive any financial compensation for the incident, which occurred in late December. They were only trying to help, they said.
Mikel Zuluaga, 61, an author, and Begona Huerte, 59, a teacher, remain unapologetic. “We’ll be back to do it again,” Zuluaga said.
Despite harsh sentences for trafficking undocumented refugees across borders — jail time of up to 10 years and fines of up to $32,000 — closed European Union frontiers and deteriorating living conditions in migrant camps have spurred a new group of activists to defy the law and smuggle refugees into Western Europe.
Early this month, a French farmer went on trial for giving food, shelter and transportation to dozens of refugees traveling from Italy to France through the French Alps. In November, a Spanish woman was arrested at Athens airport for trying to help a Kurdish man reunite with his family in Germany by giving him a family member’s passport to use. Last summer, a young Swiss man gave his passport to a Syrian man who managed to fly into London on it and claimed asylum there.
In a high-profile case this month, a French court found Rob Lawrie, 51, a British army veteran who served in Afghanistan, not guilty for trying to smuggle a 4year-old Afghan girl named Bahar from Calais’ Jungle camp into the United Kingdom to reunite with her relatives.
The veteran admitted he broke the law but said he didn’t regret it. “In the middle of this massive population movement are many thousands of children who are nothing more than victims of the (EU) policies,” Lawrie said. “The U.K. and Europe need to now start to proactively help (solve) this problem.”
These self-declared humanitarian smugglers’ attempts to help refugees come amid a rising wave of anti-immigrant and farright nationalist sentiments sweeping Europe since a flood of refugees began pouring in two years ago. Politicians are under pressure to close borders and tighten asylum rules, especially in Germany, which took in 1 million refugees in 2015.
The political situation led to a deal between the EU and Turkey in March to deport most migrants to Turkey and close borders elsewhere. That stemmed the tide of new refugees while marooning others in Greece. The number of refugees arriving in Greece fell from about 1 million annually to 362,000 since the deal took effect, according to EU officials.
More than 62,000 refugees remain stuck in Greece as officials decide whether to grant them asylum or deport them.