Led by Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Mary Lawlor, five United Nations experts have issued a damning critique of Greece’s latest attempt to criminalize human rights defenders working to support migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
In a letter to the Greek government, made public on February 24, the experts warn that a new migration law adopted on February 5 “would impose unfair restrictions on the work of NGOs working in the field of migration in Greece, while criminalising their activity of defence of human rights.”
Under the new law, membership in a nongovernmental organization is considered an aggravating factor in migration-related criminal offenses, meaning a person is punished more severely simply because they belong to a nongovernmental group. For example, if a private citizen is found to have helped an undocumented person find shelter, they might face a misdemeanor charge. But if an aid worker from a registered nongovernmental group does the exact same thing, the law converts that act into a felony.
The UN experts argue the law creates “de jure discrimination” against aid workers. They further warn that such legal “ambiguity is likely to generate a chilling effect on humanitarian actors,” as individuals and organizations providing essential assistance in good faith may face criminal charges.
The law also grants Greece’s migration minister unchecked authority to deregister nongovernmental groups without a court ruling. These measures complicate an already burdensome registration framework for nongovernmental groups that the UN experts have previously criticized.
The new legislation and the UN experts’ critiques of the law underline what we have documented at Human Rights Watch: Greek authorities are engaged in a systematic effort to smear and intimidate those who provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance to people on the move; who report on the government’s violent pushbacks against migrants; and who seek accountability for the mounting deaths of migrants and asylum seekers at borders.
By targeting and criminalizing civil society, Greece is fostering a climate of fear and undermining the rule of law in ways that ultimately put the lives of people on the move at risk.
The Greek government should heed the warning from the UN experts and annul abusive provisions of this law. The government should also preserve civil society space as a cornerstone of democracy, including for those defending the rights of people on the move.
