Instagram accounts fuelling Ceuta crisis with paid advice for help to cross

What the report says

BBC World News says its Top Comment investigation found a network of Instagram accounts promoting the Morocco-to-Ceuta crossing with aspirational videos and, in some cases, offering paid advice to migrants. The accounts portrayed the swim around the border fence as easy and safe, even though the report says people have drowned attempting it and many arrivals are later returned to Morocco.

The investigation used a dummy Instagram profile to engage with the accounts. According to the BBC, one profile claimed it had helped “many people” and asked for 5,000 dirhams, or about £400, for information about how to enter Ceuta, including references to “sewer pipes.” The BBC said similar profiles also directed it to WhatsApp groups and other contact details. Several of the accounts were removed after the BBC contacted Meta, which said it was monitoring the situation and deleting content that violated its rules on human smuggling.

The report places the social media activity against the backdrop of a major migration surge last month, when the mayor of Ceuta said about 78,000 migrants arrived by sea from Morocco in a matter of hours and 100 died. The crisis has eased, but it has contributed to tensions between Spain and Morocco and renewed scrutiny of online misinformation around migration routes. The BBC says many of the posts are designed to mislead viewers by making Ceuta appear to be a viable path to mainland Europe, when that is not the case for most arrivals.