Sarah Mardini, #FREEHUMANITARIANS
This International Women’s Day we are adding Sarah Mardini to The Yes List.
Sarah is an Activist, Refugee, Cultural Mediator & Human Rights Defender for Amnesty International, Founder of Shore and Speaker. Sarah is the older sister of Yusra Mardini, who was the first woman we put on The Yes List. Sarah and Yusra are both phenomenally inspiring individuals and we are very excited to have our first siblings on The Yes List.
Sarah Mardini made the journey with her sister Yusra, from their home in Damascus, Syria to Europe in 2015 to escape the war. The sisters made headlines on their journey to Europe for their heroic efforts to save themselves and 18 other refugees when their water logged dinghy’s engine broke down, by swimming for three hours in the cold Aegean sea.
Sarah has since become an activist and was the first female refugee to return to the refugee camp in Lesbos. Whilst working with refugees on Lesbos in 2017, handing out water and blankets, Sarah was arrested, along with her colleague Sean, and held in a Greek prison for 100 days.
Sarah and Seán Photo: Amnesty International
“In 2016 I went back to the Greek island of Lesbos, where I’d arrived by boat only a year earlier, to spot and help people in dinghies trying to reach the shore. Seán arrived in 2017 and started working for the same organisation. Together, we worked to provide people arriving with food, blankets and medical assistance. We were doing what we could to help people survive. And for this, the Greek authorities arrested us and charged us with several serious crimes, including being members of a criminal organisation, espionage, and facilitating people smuggling. We didn’t believe it at first – the charges seemed ridiculous. We were rescuing people – how could that be a crime? I never thought my time volunteering would end up this way. I hadn’t thought twice about going there to volunteer.”
Sarah gave a TEDx talk in London in January and she explained why her 100 days in prison, not understanding why she had been arrested, was worse than her journey through Europe in 2015. Watch her talk in the video above.
Solidarity is not a crime. Call on the Greek authorities to:
Drop the charges against Sarah Mardini and Seán Binder
Publicly acknowledge the legitimacy of humanitarian work which supports refugee and migrant rights
Click here to sign the Amnesty International petition to have Sarah and Sean’s charges dropped.
You can follow Sarah on;
Instagram: @sarahezzatmardi
Twitter: @SarahMardini4