Sarah and Seán could be jailed for 25 years for rescuing refugees at sea. Act now! | View in browser.

Sarah & Seán: Facing jail for saving lives

Dear John,

Sarah Mardini and Seán Binder met as trained volunteer rescue workers in Lesvos, Greece. Their job was to spot boats in distress at sea and help refugees fleeing abuses in their home countries.

Sarah, 24, is a refugee from Syria. Her journey to Europe made international news when she and her sister saved 18 people by dragging their drowning boat to safety. Seán, 25, is a son of a Vietnamese refugee. They couldn’t watch refugees drown and do nothing.

Instead of being celebrated, they were imprisoned for 100 days – charged with spying, people smuggling and belonging to a criminal organization. If found guilty, they could be jailed for 25 years.

Solidarity is not a crime. Watch the video and tell Greece to drop the charges against Sarah and Seán.

Sarah and Seán’s humanitarian work saved lives, but like many others across Europe, they are being criminalized for helping refugees.

Rather than jailing people for saving lives, Greece should be doing more to protect the rights of refugees to find a safe place to live. As Seán says:

"Humanitarian work isn’t criminal, nor is it heroic. Helping others should be normal. The real people who are suffering and dying are those already fleeing persecution."

When people need to escape conflict, torture or other abuses in their countries, they often have no option but to make highly dangerous journeys to reach safety. Criminalizing humanitarian workers and abandoning refugees at sea won’t stop refugees crossing the sea, but it will cause many more deaths.

Helping people is not a crime. Thank you for supporting Sarah, Seán and other humanitarian workers under attack for their life-saving work.

Sincerely,

Alex Neve
Secretary General
Amnesty International Canada

P.S. December 10th is International Human Rights Day, and Amnesty's biggest global day of action, Write for Rights! Sarah and Seán are one of this year's cases focused on young people pushing for a better world. You can warm up for Human Rights Day by supporting their life-saving work today.