Five Face Imprisonment For Offering Humanitarian Aid

Poland: Five people face up to five years in prison for offering humanitarian aid at the Polish-Belarusian border. Scheduled to appear in court in Hajnówka, Podlasie on 28th January, they are charged with providing food, clothing and transport to a family of nine from Iraq and a man from Egypt: all travelled to Poland via Belarus. Additionally, and rather bizarrely, the prosecution alleges that these actions resulted in “personal gain”; however, this alleged gain benefited the assisted people rather than the accused. All five accused have been long-term involved in mutual aid activities on the Polish-Belarusian border.

The charges relate to an incident from March 2022, when four of the subsequently charged five people were detained by Poland’s border guards in the Podlasie region while they were driving a group of people to the nearby town. The day after their arrest, the four were charged with human trafficking, a crime that, according to Polish law, could result in up to 8 years imprisonment. The same day, the home of one more person, a resident of Podlasie, was raided. The prosecution then applied to the court, requesting the four arrestees be kept in remand pending investigation. This request was rejected because the court ruled there was no sufficient evidence the four were involved in human trafficking. As such, after nearly 72 hours of detention, the arrestees were released. One person, a citizen of another EU country, was then ordered to leave Poland and was issued a 5-year ban on re-entering the country, apparently because they posed a “threat to Poland’s security”.

In December 2023, the four former arrestees and the person whose home was raided were charged with “providing assistance to people who crossed the border illegally” or, more specifically, delivering food and clothing to those in need, as well as offering them a lift “deep inside the country”, which is how the prosecutor decided to describe a few kilometre journey from the forest to the nearby town. This is also when the “personal gain” accusation was alleged. According to Polish law, these actions could amount to 5 years imprisonment.

"As for the charges," said Mariusz, one of the original arrestees in this case, "their absurdity stems from the fact that they had to make up something, anything really, since the original ones didn't hold up against the facts. Instead of letting it go, they're trying to pin whatever they can on us. I often catch myself not taking these charges seriously - they just make me laugh."

Despite the change of government in Poland in October 2023, the situation of people crossing the border with Belarus seeking the safety of the EU continues its tragic trajectory, and the two countries continue to use this situation for political gains. This crisis was artificially triggered by the Belarusian regime of Lukashenko, which pro-actively encourages people, particularly people from places affected by long-term military conflicts such as Syria, Yemen, Sudan or Palestine, to travel to Belarus, misleadingly promising them easy access to the EU. Then, Belarusian authorities force these people to cross the so-called green border with Poland, where in turn the Polish forces will subject them to violent pushback to Belarus. This scheme was designed to cause a political turmoil in Poland, which it successfully did, however, this is obviously not a reasonable excuse for the violations of human rights the Polish authorities engage in.

The former Polish ruling far-right party, PiS, enforced extremely harsh, inhumane measures in order to “protect” the border. The current government, a liberal coalition led by the former President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, continues these policies following a brief period of attempting to appear more humane as a form of separating itself from the policies of PiS for the purpose of an electoral campaign. The new government, too, is using this situation for political points. According to the report released in December 2024 by a human rights organisation, We Are Monitoring, the liberals ruling Poland presently removed all remarks about humanitarian aspect of this border “crisis” from their communications in May 2024. At the beginning of June, a Polish soldier died following having been stabbed during a migrant pushback action in Podlasie. This incident served as fuel for a crackdown on both people attempting to cross the border and organisations and individuals offering them humanitarian aid. The “tough on borders” badge also serves the current government as a political capital generator both internally and on the international stage.

"I didn't expect Donald Tusk's government, one of the architects of Fortress Europe, to have any different policies from his predecessors," Mariusz said. "The current ruling party might differ from the previous one on many important issues, sometimes drastically, and they're not that level of far-right, but when it comes to the rights of people on the move, 'migration policy' and borders, there's no difference. Besides, apart from a few insignificant people from left parties (but not the whole of the Polish left), there aren't any politicians in Poland from whom I'd expect eactions other than incitement and hatred."

The political boxing match between Poland and Belarus results in enormous human costs paid by the people attempting to cross this border. The exact death toll is unknown and likely won’t ever be known due to this tragedy taking place mainly in the vast areas of Białowieża, Europe’s last remaining primeval forest. According to a statement released by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in April 2023, 237 were missing on this border.

This, of course, is part of a wider trend in the governments of the Global North to ignore the suffering of fellow humans and instead use the attempts of those trying to reach this part of the world for political baiting. The mistreatment of people on the Poland-Belarus border occurs with the blessing and willful ignorance of other EU countries: it is, after all, not only Poland’s but also the EU border and the approach of the EU to it is similar to its approach to the “protection” if its other borders, be it in Greece, Italy or France.

Those who attempt to show solidarity and humanity in this situation are frequently vilified and prosecuted, the case of the five people from Podlasie being just one example. ■

Zosia Brom
Zosia “total disgrace to long and proud history of Freedom Press” Brom, is a life long anti-fascist and anarchist organiser. Former editor of Freedom, Zosia dodged giving much of a blurb.
Find essays here: theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/zosia-brom

Featured image courtesy of SojaPhotography