A court in eastern Poland has acquitted five activists accused of aiding illegal immigrants to remain on Polish territory before continuing their journey to Western Europe because the activists did not receive any financial or personal benefit from their alleged smuggling.
The prosecutor’s office, which gathered evidence of people being smuggled from Iraq and Egypt, is expected to appeal the verdict issued by the court on September 8.
The District Court in Bielsko-Podlaskie ruled that although the activists assisted illegal immigrants in staying in Poland, they did not gain any financial or personal benefits from it.
The court argued that material or personal benefit must be accrued by the perpetrator of the crime, rather than for the migrants who benefited from the offence.
This constitutes a departure from previous judgments which did not distinguish between the perpetrators and the beneficiaries when the outcome was illegal migration, a crime which qualifies for imprisonment of three months to five years.
The defence in the case maintained that the actions taken by the activists were purely humanitarian in nature, but the prosecutors provided evidence of encrypted communication, vehicle modifications, as well as preparing ‘safe’ houses for the illegal migrants to stay in and contacts with couriers responsible for smuggling the migrants through to Western Europe.
The actions of the activists, who were detained by police while in the process of transporting migrants, took place during the crisis on the border with Belarus in 2021 when Poland’s eastern neighbour decided to stop taking back illegal migrants and facilitated border crossings from its territory, an action which the Polish authorities consider to be “hybrid warfare”.
The ruling was welcomed “as a great victory for justice” by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) which said “it shows that, contrary to politicians’ narratives, humanitarian aid is and will remain legal”.
According to Olivier Bault from the Ordo Iuris conservative legal think tank the court’s ruling “effectively whitewashes those who facilitate illegal immigration under the guise of generosity, weakens the state in its fight against human trafficking and undermines the external border of the European Union. The signal sent to prospective migrants in Africa and the Middle East is clear: The EU’s eastern gate is open.
“Smuggling illegal immigrants into Poland is no longer considered a crime, as long as it is done under the guise of humanitarian motives. This signal will inevitably attract new flows of migrants and encourage smugglers to exploit this legal loophole” argues Bault.
He recalled that the Polish court’s ruling is reminiscent of a ruling by the French constitutional court which invoked the principle of fraternity in defence of migrants and was accused by the French right of using solidarity to erase national borders.
Bault, also claims that “this verdict contrasts starkly with the way the centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk has clamped down on concerned citizens patrolling the border against illegal migration.”
While in opposition Tusk sympathised with illegal migrants attempting to reach Poland through the border with Belarus.
“They are poor people looking for their place on earth. There’s no need for such disgusting, sinister propaganda against migrants, because these are people who need help”, he said in 2021 when the then Conservative (PiS) government stopped migrants from entering the country and began erecting a wall to stop them.
Since being returned to office in 2023 Tusk has changed his position and has actually moved to strengthen the border fortifications. However, at the same time border guards and military personnel have been prosecuted for the tactics they used to protect the border and themselves against attacks by migrants.
Poland has also begun to accept the return of foreigners from German police, even when their transit through Poland on the way to Germany remains unclear, leading to more than ten thousand migrants being brought back without protest, while the government has pursued a programme of building integration centres for foreigners across the whole of the country.
This led to demonstrations and a vigilante organization ROG (Border Defence Movement) being established which has been patrolling the border with Germany.
The patrols have attempted to intercept migrants escorted by the German police, alerting the media and border guards.
The government reacted angrily to the patrols calling them illegal and has prosecuted Robert Bąkiewicz, the leader of ROG, for allegedly insulting an officer when protesting about migration.
