LIVE MONITORING DATABASE
A Global Record of Cases of Criminalised Solidarity.
Compassion is not a crime. Solidarity with asylum seekers and the defence of human rights are not crimes.
We monitor, document, and report on legal cases involving crimes of solidarity and humanitarian work.
Over the past eight years of fighting for justice in our own case, we have witnessed a deeply alarming pattern take hold: the global criminalisation of humanitarian action in the context of migration. As a result, our work expanded beyond a single campaign to documenting similar prosecutions, tracking them over time, learning from them, and standing alongside those targeted.
‘The Crimes of Solidarity & Humanitarianism’ (CoSaH) Database builds on this work.
About Free Humanitarians
Our mission is to defend and protect humanitarian aid workers and those standing in solidarity with displaced people; and are criminalised for doing so.
We challenge the growing criminalisation of migration support by providing legal assistance, documenting and reporting on prosecutions, and advocating for stronger legal protections and policy change to safeguard both aid workers and the integrity of humanitarian action in the context of migration.
On 15 January 2026, 24 humanitarian aid workers were finally acquitted of all felony charges stemming from their volunteer support for people seeking asylum on Lesvos in 2018. This landmark verdict followed eight years of legal struggle and affirmed a principle at the heart of our work: compassion and solidarity must not be treated as crimes.
We hope our verdict will help turn the tide. We remain determined to continue this work — standing alongside those targeted, challenging injustice, and defending the right to provide humanitarian assistance.
THE ‘CoSaH’ DATABASE
CoSaH: Crimes of Solidarity and Humanitarianism
This global database records past and present cases where individuals and groups have been criminalised for helping displaced people.
Around the world, an increasing number of states are seeking to criminalise humanitarian workers or those acting in solidarity with people attempting to cross borders, or survive within a country irregularly.
This is part of a wider global trend towards strict border controls and limited safe and legal pathways to protection for forced migrants.
The aim of the project is to connects struggles across borders and time to strengthen our collective action and resistance against criminalisation.
Make Cases Visible
We make cases visible so they cannot go unnoticed or quietly prosecuted. Experience shows that informed public attention, pressure, and solidarity significantly increase the chances of fair and positive outcomes.
Support Action & Advocacy
Where possible, ongoing cases will link to active campaigns, advocacy efforts, and ways to offer support - including how to donate, mobilise, or take action in solidarity with those affected.
Build Resource Networks
The database helps build transnational networks of support by connecting local trial monitors, translators, legal teams, and human rights groups.
Monitor, Document, & Analyse
Collected data from submitted cases is analysed to situate individual cases within a larger context, understand patterns, legal strategies, and the relationship between prosecutions, policy, and wider political contexts. This resource supports advocacy, legal defence, research, and academic work.
WHY THIS DATABASE EXISTS
The Criminalisation of Solidarity
Protecting humanitarian aid work, is protecting the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.
Throughout our joint and individual careers, our team has stood firmly for the right to seek asylum. Defending the rights of asylum seekers and refugees means also defending those who support them. Protecting humanitarian aid work is inseparable from protecting human rights.
Over the past decade, humanitarian aid workers have been criminalised for performing legal, registered aid work — often carried out in coordination with state authorities. While we welcome scrutiny in all processes concerning vulnerable groups, including aid work, growing evidence indicates that these criminal processes are politically motivated.
Investigations drag on for years. Defendants are left in legal limbo without crucial information of their allegations and charges.
Trials are frequently marred by procedural failures: missing interpreters, weak or absent evidence, and—ironically—verdicts that ultimately acquit. In the meantime, critical humanitarian work is disrupted, reputations destroyed, and lives upended.
Sadly, our case is not an anomaly. Across the EU, human rights groups are reporting an escalating crackdown—on both humanitarian aid work, and individuals showing solidarity with asylum seekers and refugees. Alarming new trends include charging asylum seekers for having driven a boat across the sea, and under smuggling laws—effectively criminalising their own escape.
While our work is directed against the criminalisation of humanitarian aid work and aid workers, we believe that these legal attacks are interconnected.
This is part of a broader pattern. Instead of directing investigations towards registered and licensed humanitarian aid work, authorities should accept the resources and expertise that non-governmental groups can provide — especially where state responses are lacking.
Above all, we must confront the root issue at hand: the absence of legal and safe routes for asylum seekers entering the EU.
We need your help.
Free Humanitarians is a small collective, initially made up from the defendants’ close friends.
Eight years on and with the positive verdict of full acquittal in January 2026, our fight for justice has grown as we’ve recognised the wider criminalisation of humanitarian aid and people on the move across Europe.
We can’t do this alone. If you have time, energy, or money to help us raise the word, defend humanitarians from criminal charges, and get involved, then that would be so greatly received.