On August 31, 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the Polish-Belarusian border together with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Standing in front of the 5.5-meter-high steel wall, she praised Poland's border security measures and its successful defense against irregular migrants attempting to enter the European Union.

Two days later, five refugee aid workers stood trial in nearby Bialystok. They are known as the "Hajnowka Five" — or by the hashtag, "#H5" — because their trial began in January 2025 in the district court of the small town of Hajnowka, a small town of 22,000 people, just 20 kilometers from the Polish border with Belarus.

Due to the numbers of media following the event, the trial was moved to the regional court in Bialystok, the capital and only major city of the Polish province of Podlasie. Interest in the trial is running high as it highlights the humanitarian consequences of Europe's isolationist policy.

Three women and two men are accused of human trafficking. In March 2022, they provided emergency assistance to an Iraqi-Kurdish family with seven children in the Bialowieza National Park near the border — and then attempted to drive them to the nearest town in Poland. In doing so, they were stopped by a Polish border patrol, who discovered the refugees in the back seats. This was followed by charges and a trial.

Opposition to migration policy

In her closing statement, prosecutor Magdalena Rutyna recommended a prison sentence of one year and four months. "The fact that the foreigners were transported hidden under blankets, sleeping bags, or clothing indicates that the defendants were fully aware that they did not have the necessary documents to stay in Poland," she said. The activists had thus deliberately "resisted the current migration policy" and were destabilizing security on Poland's eastern border.

Defense attorney Radoslaw Baszuk, on the other hand, reminded the court of the people the defendants had helped: "We are talking about an Iraqi-Kurdish family with seven minor children," he emphasized. They had been waiting in the border forest for months, were starving, and "were in catastrophic health due to nighttime temperatures around freezing point."

"In a functioning state, the people would have been taken care of, authorities would have been informed, and they would have provided procedures, protection, and care," said Baszuk. But Poland is not functioning "like a normal state" in the context of the migration crisis on the Belarusian border, he argued. The refugee family had already been pushed back twice by Polish border officials, meaning they had been forcibly returned across the border to Belarus on two occasions.

Pushbacks are illegal under EU law. "If these are illegal, then protecting a person whose health or life is threatened by a pushback cannot be illegal," concluded Baszuk, pleading for acquittal.

Refugee aid workers feel abandoned

The defendant, Ewa Moroz-Kaczynska, said that neither she nor her fellow activists had asked to become refugee activists. They had no choice. "We, the people of this region, always hoped that the state would come and help us," she said. "That it would relieve us of the obligation to save human lives."

The only "crime" they had committed, she said, was that they cared about the suffering of the migrants. "If we are found guilty of this, it also means that human decency is a criminal offense," said the 56-year-old. 

The spectators in the packed courtroom were visibly moved, some with tears in their eyes. Many of them are refugee aid workers themselves, and have cooked soup, donated clothes, or carried aid supplies into the forest. Hundreds of them reported themselves to the public prosecutor's office, stating that they had also helped migrants. The verdict on the five refugee aid workers from Hajnowka is expected at the next court hearing on September 8, 2025.

Further trials against refugee aid workers on the cards

The trial of the Hajnowka Five is the first of its kind in Poland — and is receiving a blaze of media attention. It is not the only attempt to criminalize humanitarian aid at the Belarusian border: Since 2021, authorities have repeatedly detained aid workers, only to drop the charges due to lack of evidence.

Another trial opened on the same day just a few doors down at the regional court in Bialystok. In October 2024, refugee aid worker Bartosz J. had helped a seriously injured Somali student submit an asylum application to the border guards after crossing the border irregularly. When the border guards nevertheless tried to forcibly return the young man, Bartosz J. tried to prevent them from doing so. The public prosecutor's office accuses him of obstructing the border guards in their work and threatening them with violence and coercion.

Some 30,000 border crossings per year

According to the Polish border police Straz Graniczna, around 30,000 people attempt to cross the border from Belarus to Poland illegally every year. The numbers have remained constant since 2021 — despite steel walls, drones, and thermal cameras.

Unlike at all the other external EU borders, neither the European border agency Frontex nor international aid organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) are active in this area. The message behind this is clear: That Poland can handle this on its own, but also, that Poland does not want any documentation by third parties. Neither the media nor NGOs are allowed to enter a restricted zone stretching for kilometers.

Prime Minister Tusk reiterated that his government would stick to its anti-immigration course. "Enough concessions, we must be tough and well prepared," he said. And EU Commission President von der Leyen promised Poland support in protecting its external borders: She pledged that the EU would triple spending on migration and border management. Countries with borders with Russia or Belarus would receive additional funds. "This will make our home, the European Union, stronger and safer," said von der Leyen.

This article was originally written in German.