Germany rejects reports it wants to criminalize migrant sea rescuers

Germany’s Interior Ministry has rejected reports that it wants to enable the prosecution of migrant sea rescuers.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung had interpreted a passage from a draft law presented by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in October that humanitarian workers at sea would be criminalized as people smugglers in the future. 

But the ministry has hit back, saying: “It is not true that the activities of private sea rescuers to save human lives are to be made more difficult in the future by possible criminal liability,” French news agency AFP reported on Friday (November 10). 

A ministry spokesperson told AFP that “Such actions are to be considered justified in order to avert danger to life.”

Saving lives is ‘neither a crime nor a criminal offense,’ says Pro Asyl

Faeser’s draft bill is part of German efforts to seek ways to deal with an increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving and the shortage of accommodation for refugees in many municipalities across the country.

Among other things, Faeser’s draft bill aims to accelerate the deportation of smugglers, provide for extended detention options for migrants subject to deportation, as well as give more rights for police officers during searches.

Following the bill, the refugee organization Pro Asyl voiced its concerns.

“Saving lives is neither a crime nor a criminal offense,” Karl Kopp, head of the organization’s European department, told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, reiterating that sea rescuers should not be equated with people smugglers. “This must be stopped,” he demanded.

Concerns draft bill will pave the way for humanitarian prosecutions

Gordon Isler, the chairman of the sea rescue organization Sea-Eye, believes that the amendment contradicts the policies of all three governing parties in Germany, which he says positioned themselves clearly and positively regarding sea rescues.

He called for the proposal to be rejected and for “the democratic members of the Bundestag (parliament) to now take a clear position on civil sea rescues.”

Despite rejections from the Interior Ministry, some say concerns from the Süddeutsche Zeitung are justified. Citizens who have helped migrants in distress at sea or in forests in Poland, Greece and Italy have repeatedly been questioned by authorities or in court.

In January, a group of 24 volunteers were brought to trial on the Greek island of Lesbos more than four years after they were arrested for carrying out migrant rescue missions off Greece.

With AFP and dpa