Fact Check: Video claiming immigration problem at the US border shows Spain-Morocco border
A video of hundreds of people climbing up the fence from the other side of the border between two countries is being shared virally with a claim that it is at the US border. The video claims: “The US border looks like a scene from the walking dead.”
A video of hundreds of people climbing up the fence from the other side of the border between two countries is being shared virally with a claim that it is at the US border. The video claims: “The US border looks like a scene from the walking dead.”
The video shows people climbing the fence while the guards are still there on this side.
The video is being shared with an implication that it shows the immigration problem in the United States of America.
Fact Check:
The claim that the video shows the US border is false. It is from the Morocco-Spain border in the city of Melilla.
When the extracted key frames from the video were used to perform Google reverse image search, we found the video shared by a Twitter handle named La Gaceta de la iberosfera, a Spanish digital newspaper, in March 2022. This video was shared by them with the caption: “At least three civil guards have been injured after the assault of more than 2,000 illegals on the fence of Melilla, the largest migratory avalanche of the year.”
The link shared in the caption led us to a news article published by La Gaceta de la iberosfera on March 2, 2022, which states that more than 2000 illegal immigrants have attacked the fence of Melilla. According to the security forces, more than 500 have managed to access the autonomous city and at least 16 civil guards were injured in this incident.
According to sources from the Government Delegation, the great violence was used by the immigrants, as they were equipped with hooks, sticks, and screws in their shoes and threw stones to surpass the Moroccan security forces that were trying to prevent them from crossing the fence.
According to an Aljazeera report, in mid-May 2021, Spain was caught off guard when more than 10,000 people swam or used small inflatable boats to encroach into the Ceuta territory as the Moroccan border forces looked the other way.
The influx took place during a diplomatic crisis between Madrid and Rabat over Western Sahara, which has long pushed for independence from Morocco.
A similar incident occurred in June 2022 again when thousands of migrants attempted to cross the border and Morocco deployed a large number of forces to repel these migrants. As a result, more than 23 migrants were killed in this incident.
Hence, the video does not show the US border but the border between Morocco-Spain at the city of Melilla where thousands of African migrants tried to cross the fence over the years. The claim is false.