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. Four people viewed from behind as the address a crowdFour people viewed from behind as the address a crowd Four of the five accused refugee aid workers speak to the media in BialystokImage: Nadine Wojcik/DW 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. Bartosz J., also on trial in Bialystok, has been accused of preventing the border police from carrying out its dutiesBartosz J., also on trial in Bialystok, has been accused of preventing the border police from carrying out its duties