Aid workers facing 25 years in prison for saving lives

As the legal ordeal of two aid workers shows, anti-migrant attitudes in Greece and across Europe have hardened — to the point that the helpers have become political targets

Sean Binder has been left in 'legal limbo' in Greece on spying charges. Photo: Manolis Lagoutaris / AFP

ON a cold night in February 2018, Sara Mardini and Seán Binder sat in a jeep on the rocky headlands of Lesbos, their eyes on the water.

As volunteers for Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), a small humanitarian aid group, Mardini and Binder were looking for signs of incoming migrant boats so they could alert the Greek coast guard and search-and-rescue groups to dispatch assistance.