• Education
    • Higher Education
    • Scholarships & Grants
    • Online Learning
    • School Reforms
    • Research & Innovation
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Fashion & Beauty
    • Home & Living
    • Relationships & Family
  • Technology & Startups
    • Software & Apps
    • Startup Success Stories
    • Startups & Innovations
    • Tech Regulations
    • Venture Capital
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cybersecurity
    • Emerging Technologies
    • Gadgets & Devices
    • Industry Analysis
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
Today Headline
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World News
    • Us & Canada
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Political Parties
    • Government Policies
    • International Relations
    • Legislative News
  • Business & Finance
    • Market Trends
    • Stock Market
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Corporate News
    • Economic Policies
  • Science & Environment
    • Space Exploration
    • Climate Change
    • Wildlife & Conservation
    • Environmental Policies
    • Medical Research
  • Health
    • Public Health
    • Mental Health
    • Medical Breakthroughs
    • Fitness & Nutrition
    • Pandemic Updates
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Tennis
    • Olympics
    • Motorsport
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV & Streaming
    • Celebrity News
    • Awards & Festivals
  • Crime & Justice
    • Court Cases
    • Cybercrime
    • Policing
    • Criminal Investigations
    • Legal Reforms
No Result
View All Result
Today Headline
No Result
View All Result
Home World News Europe

‘Hajnowka 5’ on trial for aiding desperate refugees – DW – 04/17/2025

April 17, 2025
in Europe
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
0
'Hajnowka 5' on trial for aiding desperate refugees – DW – 04/17/2025
2
SHARES
4
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


About 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Bialystok courthouse in northern Poland on a recent April morning to show support for five Poles on trial here. Four of the five appeared for the trial, and the fifth failed to appear.  

Demonstrators held up signs reading “Freedom for the five,” “Helping is not a crime,” or “Laws can’t smother the truth.” A group of drum-banging young people approached. Others yelled words of encouragement to the defendants, shouting, “You’ll never walk alone!” Cheers erupted when the four appeared in court.

In March 2022, the five gave water, food and clothing to a desperate Iraqi couple, their seven children and an elderly Egyptian man who was with them. The refugees had illegally crossed the Belarus-Polish border and had spent several days living in the woods. The five Poles then decided to drive the group to the next closest town around 13 kilometers (8 miles) away, but border patrol agents stopped them before they could get there.

Among those who appeared for questioning before the court on April 14 were the border patrol agents who discovered the refugees in the activists’ vehicle. “Suddenly,” said one, “I saw the back seat move. There were people hidden under the blankets that were stacked on it.”

A group of protesters hold up signs and banners with Polish-language texts calling for the release of five people who aided desperate refugees
Demonstrators came out to call for the release of the so-called Hajnowka FiveImage: Monika Sieradzka/DW

The crime of helping people in need

Prosecutors in Hajnowka demanded the activists, now known as the “Hajnowka Five” (#H5), be jailed immediately, but a court rejected the plea. Now, after months of hearings and witness testimony, the five have been formally charged.

They are accused of providing “illegal assistance” to refugees, “making it easier for them to stay in the Republic of Poland” by “providing food and clothing to them while they were hiding in the woods, giving them shelter and rest and transporting them into Poland on March 22, 2022.”

A woman with glasses and red hair (Ewa Moroz-Keczynska) smiles as she stands before a public building
Ewa Moroz-Keczynska doesn’t regret helping refugees in needImage: Monika Sieradzka/DW

Crisis at the Belarus-Poland border

One of those on trial is Ewa Moroz-Keczynska, an ethnologist who leads the educational department at the Bialowieza National Park near the border.

“We locals are in the woods a lot. It’s where we work and relax,” she told DW. In 2021, something terrible happened. Our forest started to move. Suddenly, it was full of people. We met people who were suffering from malnutrition, dehydration or other ailments, some even seemed to have hidden themselves to die in peace.”

Moroz-Keczynska said that it is difficult to go back to living a normal life once you have seen such images.

“I went into the woods with a backpack and started helping people. It’s not something you really want to do. There should be organizations or state institutions to do that. It mostly falls to the young activists who come here to help and then have to suffer this trauma. As a local I had no choice. I had to do what I have always taught my students and my children.”

Illegal crossings of Belarus and Poland’s shared 418 kilometer border jumped dramatically in the fall of 2021. Those crossing were people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia who had been invited to come to Belarus on tourist visas before being bussed directly to the Polish border, often by Belarus soldiers. The route is one of the most popular into Europe but also one of the most treacherous.

A group of six women sit on the ground among trees, a large slatted border wall can be seen
Volunteers seek to help refugees on the other side of the Belarus-Poland borderImage: Agnieszka Sadowska/AP/picture alliance

A shameful trial

Lawyer Hanna Machinksa of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is one of the many human rights and legal experts watching what she called “a shameful trial” and an assault on those seeking to help.

Machinska says authorities should incorporate people who want to help into their own ranks, letting them work with state institutions such as border patrol agencies rather than prosecuting them.

“These people have experience. They know how to help. If it wasn’t for them, the death toll at the border would be far higher than the 58 recorded so far,” she told DW.

Moreover, she said the charges are an absurdly skewed interpretation of the law. The legal basis for the suit (Paragraph 264.1 of the Polish legal code) was actually designed to prosecute those who help illegals reside in Poland “for financial or personal gain.” The penalty for a guilty verdict can be up to five years in prison.

The law targets human traffickers, but now prosecutors are arguing that the gist of the law is to clamp down on “advantages gained by refugees.”

Machinska rejects that argument. “We are not talking about human trafficking here. We are talking about humanitarian assistance. It’s a refusal to provide such assistance that should be a crime.”

A man in a dark suit and tie (Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk)
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has surprised supporters with his hardline stance on migrationImage: SERGEI GAPON/AFP/Getty Images

Tough migration policy from a liberal government

The next court appearance for the defendants is scheduled for May 14, exactly four days before a presidential election featuring right-wing and extreme-right candidates. The trial has also put the restrictive migration policies of center-right Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s administration under the spotlight. Many of those who voted for his coalition are deeply disappointed that Tusk’s migration policies are even harsher than those of the previous right-wing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government.

In early March, for instance, Tusk suspended the right to request asylum at the Belarus-Poland border, citing his belief that refugees there were being used as yet another component in a Russian-led hybrid war against Europe. Polish border agents have been regularly accused of not allowing people to make use of their internationally recognized right to request asylum. Human rights advocates see the suspension of asylum rights as an attempt to legalize so-called pushbacks.

Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, who also serves as Poland’s attorney general, has additionally raised eyebrows for refusing to drop charges against the Hajnowka Five despite numerous appeals to do so and the fact that the investigation began under the previous Law and Justice government.

This article was originally published in German.



Source link

Previous Post

Africa’s Gas & Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Potential: Tapping Opportunities for Sustainable Growth – Africa.com

Next Post

China: Asean trade can offset US tariffs

Related Posts

Pope meets Ukraine's Zelensky after inauguration Mass

Pope meets Ukraine’s Zelensky after inauguration Mass

May 18, 2025
5
Pope Leo XIV's inaugural Mass begins at the Vatican – DW – 05/18/2025

Pope Leo’s pontificate officially begins – DW – 05/18/2025

May 18, 2025
6
Next Post
China: Asean trade can offset US tariffs

China: Asean trade can offset US tariffs

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

Family calls for change after B.C. nurse dies by suicide after attacks on the job

April 2, 2025
Pioneering 3D printing project shares successes

Product reduces TPH levels to non-hazardous status

November 27, 2024

Hospital Mergers Fail to Deliver Better Care or Lower Costs, Study Finds todayheadline

December 31, 2024

Police ID man who died after Corso Italia fight

December 23, 2024
Harris tells supporters 'never give up' and urges peaceful transfer of power

Harris tells supporters ‘never give up’ and urges peaceful transfer of power

0
Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend's Mother

Des Moines Man Accused Of Shooting Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother

0

Trump ‘looks forward’ to White House meeting with Biden

0
Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

Catholic voters were critical to Donald Trump’s blowout victory: ‘Harris snubbed us’

0
Kamala Harris needs to decide why she wants to be governor

Kamala Harris needs to decide why she wants to be governor

May 18, 2025

Bessent defends Trump’s Qatari luxury jet gift: ‘French gave us the Statue of Liberty’

May 18, 2025
South Korea’s presidential candidates focus on economic recovery in first debate

South Korea’s presidential candidates focus on economic recovery in first debate

May 18, 2025
Pope meets Ukraine's Zelensky after inauguration Mass

Pope meets Ukraine’s Zelensky after inauguration Mass

May 18, 2025

Recent News

Kamala Harris needs to decide why she wants to be governor

Kamala Harris needs to decide why she wants to be governor

May 18, 2025
3

Bessent defends Trump’s Qatari luxury jet gift: ‘French gave us the Statue of Liberty’

May 18, 2025
3
South Korea’s presidential candidates focus on economic recovery in first debate

South Korea’s presidential candidates focus on economic recovery in first debate

May 18, 2025
3
Pope meets Ukraine's Zelensky after inauguration Mass

Pope meets Ukraine’s Zelensky after inauguration Mass

May 18, 2025
5

TodayHeadline is a dynamic news website dedicated to delivering up-to-date and comprehensive news coverage from around the globe.

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Basketball
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Change
  • Crime & Justice
  • Economic Policies
  • Elections
  • Entertainment
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Policies
  • Europe
  • Football
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Health
  • Medical Research
  • Mental Health
  • Middle East
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Politics
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Science & Environment
  • Software & Apps
  • Space Exploration
  • Sports
  • Stock Market
  • Technology & Startups
  • Tennis
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Us & Canada
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • World News

Recent News

Kamala Harris needs to decide why she wants to be governor

Kamala Harris needs to decide why she wants to be governor

May 18, 2025

Bessent defends Trump’s Qatari luxury jet gift: ‘French gave us the Statue of Liberty’

May 18, 2025
  • Education
  • Lifestyle
  • Technology & Startups
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy

© 2024 Todayheadline.co

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Business & Finance
  • Corporate News
  • Economic Policies
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Market Trends
  • Crime & Justice
  • Court Cases
  • Criminal Investigations
  • Cybercrime
  • Legal Reforms
  • Policing
  • Education
  • Higher Education
  • Online Learning
  • Entertainment
  • Awards & Festivals
  • Celebrity News
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Health
  • Fitness & Nutrition
  • Medical Breakthroughs
  • Mental Health
  • Pandemic Updates
  • Lifestyle
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • Food & Drink
  • Home & Living
  • Politics
  • Elections
  • Government Policies
  • International Relations
  • Legislative News
  • Political Parties
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cybersecurity
  • Emerging Technologies
  • Gadgets & Devices
  • Industry Analysis
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Motorsport
  • Olympics
  • Climate Change
  • Environmental Policies
  • Medical Research
  • Science & Environment
  • Space Exploration
  • Wildlife & Conservation
  • Sports
  • Tennis
  • Technology & Startups
  • Software & Apps
  • Startup Success Stories
  • Startups & Innovations
  • Tech Regulations
  • Venture Capital
  • Uncategorized
  • World News
  • Us & Canada
  • Public Health
  • Relationships & Family
  • Travel
  • Research & Innovation
  • Scholarships & Grants
  • School Reforms
  • Stock Market
  • TV & Streaming
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy & Policy
  • About us
  • Contact

© 2024 Todayheadline.co