Rome, Italy (AFP) – Since mid-June, several social media users have been publishing false claims that an “army” of 500,000 migrants is on its way to Italy from Libya, along with videos that supposedly illustrate this. However, the videos actually show the expulsion of irregular migrants by Libyan security forces at the end of May and the rumours were sparked by an Italian far-right account.
The fact check, in detail
“In Libya, an army of 500,000 migrant men are ready to invade Europe. A real apocalypse. Stop the invasion, save Europe!” To back up this alarmist tweet, which he published on 26 June, Paul Golding, leader of the British far-right “Britain First” party, also shared a video.
A large procession can be seen advancing towards the camera across a desert landscape. In the background, religious chants suggest that these men are Muslims.
Viewed almost a million times, this post is not the only to share this narrative. This other far-right British account shared a different video on 25 June, also purporting to show these “500,000 [migrants] on their way”. It shows a similar gathering to the one in the first video, with police cars and sirens blaring.
“These men will be called ‘climate migrants’, you will integrate them, house them, educate them and employ them because climate change is your fault!” claims the tweet, which has been viewed nearly 500,000 times.
But this story is not just being defended by xenophobic European accounts. This user, who actively relays the Iranian regime’s propaganda and content hostile to European countries, also expressed his support on 27 June. He commented on the first video: “Europe has destroyed Africa. Africans have every right to go to Europe”.
The account @RadioGenova orginally posted the story. The user identifies themself as Italian, is accustomed to sharing content that is hostile to migrants, anti-vaccine or discredits European countries. But since 16 June, their posts have focused on images purporting to support the theory that 500,000 migrants are heading for Italy from Libya.
Altogether, “Radio Genova” has published five articles accompanied by videos that purport to illustrate this gigantic convoy of migrants. The first, on 19 June, shows men sitting on the ground in front of a yellow building.
The second, on 22 June, shows the same man from above, then men getting out of a lorry towards the inside of a building. The third, on 23 June, is a video of a compact procession of men walking between soldiers.
The fourth, on 25 June, shows the same type of procession, accompanied by police cars with sirens wailing. This is the video relayed by the British account “Bernie’s tweets”.
The fifth was broadcast on 26 June. It shows the crowd of men walking towards the camera in a desert setting, shared by Paul Golding.
Some of these images take place against a backdrop of religious chants or popular Arabic music. But there are no details to indicate where these videos were shot. So what do they really show?
The images were shot in Libya…
To understand where these images were shot, we paid particular attention to the details on the police cars filmed in the fourth video. One of them reads in Arabic: “Derna security directorate”.
It’s a town on the eastern coast of Libya, between Benghazi and Tobruk, in the area controlled by Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Haftar has been in conflict for many years with the UN-recognised government in Tripoli for control of the country.
So this video was shot in Libya and shows security forces in the town of Derna. When we scrolled through the Facebook page of the police force based in Derna, we discovered a post that published this same video on 1 June.
The video was accompanied by a description of the scene: “the duties of the police department […] in the town of Musaid” [ed. note: the name of this town, امساعد in Arabic, is sometimes spelt Amsaad in some translations]. Musaid is a four-hour drive east of Derna, close to the border with Egypt.
In the first video published by Radio Genova, we found a clue that proves the scene also took place in the town of Musaid: the pediment of the yellow building reads “Musaid Security Directorate”.
We turned to TikTok, where we conducted a search using the keyword “Musaid” in Arabic (“امساعد”). We there found the same police operation from around 1 June, which was filmed abundantly by passers-by, but also by men from the security services.
Surrounded by men in uniforms, this user filmed two TikTok videos (here and here), published on 31 May, from a balcony of the Musaid security directorate.
We also found that “Radio Genova” removed the name of the police station and the town, perhaps in order to make the scene more difficult to verify.
The third video published by Radio Genova, showing a procession of soldiers, can also be found on TikTok. It was published on 2 June and supposedly shows the events in Musaid, which is written at the top of the video.
The last video shows men walking towards the camera in a desert landscape. It was posted on 1 June by an account that appears to belong to a Libyan security service official. Although he does not caption it, he does indicate the theme of the video in the thumbnail: “Musaid’s migration”.
In the last two cases, the original soundtrack was removed by “Radio Genova” and replaced by Muslim religious chants.
These 5 videos were therefore filmed in Libya. They show the same police operation, filmed by different men, which mobilised several security services in the Musaid region between 31 May and 2 June. But who was the target? Was it to accompany the “army of 500,000 migrants” referred to by Radio Genova?
…which actually show the capture and expulsion of migrants by local security forces
More information can be found by typing the keywords “musaid” and “migrants” in Arabic, and setting the date of the results between 31 May and 2 June.
For example, this article from the local media “Libya News 24” that dates back to 1 June claims to give “the results of the work of the joint security force in the expulsion of around a hundred immigrants from Musaid”. We learned that the actions filmed in the various videos are in fact part of an operation to track down irregular migrants in the region, in order to escort them back to the Libyan borders and dismantle the networks of smugglers.
He explained: “Musaid’s operations have so far freed 1,500 immigrants from human trafficking warehouses. […] Among them were 700 Egyptians.
Among these 700 people, the article added, “500 […] were sent back to their country via the Musaid/Salloum crossing point”. Located a few kilometres away, this checkpoint allows passage between Egypt and Libya. Other videos showing the migrants being led to the crossing point and arriving in the Egyptian town of Salloum on 1 June can be found on TikTok.
This information was confirmed by another video from a local media outlet, which referred to the return of “several thousand illegal migrants to Egypt via the Musaid crossing point”.
A press release from the press service of the Libyan army operating in the region stated on 31 May that “military and security units arrested more than 1,000 illegal immigrants of different nationalities, found scattered around the farms and houses of smugglers in the town of Musaid”.
It is difficult to know exactly how many people were arrested by the security forces during this operation. However, the groups visible on these videos definitely do not amount to 500,000 migrants.
Contrarily to what “Radio Genova” claims, the migrants are not heading for Italy: those of Egyptian nationality appear to have been sent straight back to their country of origin. As for the others, they have been transferred “to the refuge for illegal migrants in Qanfouda, Benghazi”, as part of their deportation, according to Libya News 24.
Moreover, the figure of 500,000 migrants does not seem realistic: in 2023, the Libyan branch of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated that the country had a total of 706,000 migrants. Throughout 2022, Italy received just over 105,000 migrants on its soil, including both people wishing to settle in the country and individuals in transit.
