Petra Dvořáková: Imprisonment for helping refugees – treating Tusk as if he were Kaczynski

Sunday, Jun 8, 2025

Protests support activists charged for aiding refugees at Polish-Belarusian borders, highlighting human rights issues.

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[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

A protest took place outside a district court in Białystok, Poland, on May 14th, where supporters gathered to show solidarity with defendants accused of helping refugee families at the Polish-Belarusian border. The case, known as “Hajnówka 5,” involved five defendants who assisted refugees fleeing Belarus, including an Italian citizen and local activists like Ewa Moroz-Keczyńska. The context of the case involves a humanitarian crisis on the border, where restrictive policies and pushbacks by authorities have been documented. Activists, such as Fabo, risked arrest while providing aid in the forest. Despite changes in government, human rights organizations continue to challenge the legality of these actions, arguing that criminalizing solidarity with refugees is unjust, especially given international law against pushbacks. The defendants expressed their belief in doing what was necessary to be humane, and legal experts anticipate their acquittal, asserting that preventing humanitarian aid should be the crime, not providing it.


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