Can saving lives be a crime?

Is saving lives a crime? Should it be to look the other way?… Three Sevillian firefighters from Proemaid were tried in Lesbos for saving the lives of hundreds of people in Greece. Laws, so necessary and adjusted in most cases, become obsolete or dehumanized in periods of upheaval and change.

The laws, those that we must all abide by, sometimes go one way and people go another. This is the case of these three firefighters who were judged for not knowing how to look the other way and save the lives of those who could lose them in drifting boats.

Luckily, when laws do not protect human rights, there are people and associations dedicated to safeguarding them. Associations such as Proemaid and Open arms rescue people from the sea who are trying to reach Europe fleeing war, persecution or poverty. Not saving the life of someone who falls into the water is what should be punished.

Finally, the firefighters who had been accused of human trafficking, while carrying out refugee rescue tasks as volunteers for an NGO, say they are “happy” and “relieved” after being released. “The sentence shows that saving lives is not a crime“said one of them after the court’s decision.

“Humanity achieves more power every day; “no more happiness.”

-Yuval Noah Harari

Suppress human rights out of selfishness

Everything returns. Today it is others, yesterday it was us, tomorrow no one knows. We cannot allow ourselves to live in a world that only looks at its navel, because even if we have the upper hand today, tomorrow we will not know what situation we will have to navigate. If we encourage a world in which there is no compassion, no empathy and no justice, sooner or later we will get the other side of the coin, as citizens and possibly as a nation.

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Beneath the mafias that are dedicated to human trafficking hides a lack of sensitivity in society. Although it is more than evident that we must fight against these mafias that dehumanize people by treating them as numbers, the place to combat them should not be the sea.

The fight against these mafias has to take place at the points of departure and arrival, once people are in the bar it should not be admitted as a battlefield. The battlefield must be on dry land, at sea innocent lives fleeing from barbarism are put in danger.

“The most advanced countries are leading the world to disaster, while people until now considered primitive are trying to save the entire planet. And unless rich countries learn from indigenous people, we will all be doomed to destruction.”

-Noam Chomsky-

At sea, every second counts

Albert Einstein already said it, man’s problem is not in the atomic bomb, but in his heart. In the case of associations that contribute internationally to the rescue work of men, women, boys and girls in extreme circumstances, their hearts cannot be bigger. For these people, it is better to act and risk regretting it than to regret not having done anything.

The Lesbos ruling clarifies and confirms that these associations do not deserve criminalization for saving lives, of which they are currently and unfortunately the object, in this and other similar cases. This is, without a doubt, humanitarian work for the purposes of exemption from criminal responsibilities to which the European Facilitation Directive makes explicit reference.

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This sentence not only suits these three Sevillian firefighters, but also all the people who help save lives in the Mediterranean, because people who help were being judged. An attempt has been made to penalize solidarity, An attempt was made to criminalize humanitarian aid and this sentence shows that saving lives is not a crime.

“We are just an advanced race of apes on a minor planet of a very normal star. However, we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”

Images courtesy of www.fitovazquez.es