Instagram boosts scam network that promises to help migrants reach Ceuta for up to R$2,800

Underage immigrants line up in front of the Ceuta police station to be registered REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura This weekend, Mohammed wants to go from Morocco to the neighboring Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in the far north of Africa. He is a Moroccan in his twenties who wants to emigrate to Europe, mainly because he has seen a lot of videos on Instagram that make the crossing look easy. He contacted several Instagram accounts and one responded, claiming to have helped "a lot of people" and offering advice on how to cross the border for hundreds of dollars. But Mohammed doesn't really exist – he's a fake account I created to investigate a network of Instagram profiles that are driving the flow of migrants to Ceuta with inspiring content and offering help for a fee. This comes after approximately 78,000 migrants from Morocco arrived by sea in Ceuta in a matter of hours last month, 100 of whom died, according to Ceuta's mayor. The crisis has since eased, but it has generated tensions between European Union nations that share open borders, as well as criticism of the Spanish government. The BBC identified dozens of Instagram profiles who said that making the short swim around the border fence between Morocco and Ceuta is safe and easy – but in reality, people have drowned trying to make the crossing and opted for much longer routes. Accounts also wrongly show Ceuta as a viable route to continental Europe. Our research suggests this contributed to the migration flow, along with other factors such as misinformation about changes to Spanish immigration legislation and allegations about weak border controls. Crisis in Ceuta completes a week still without responses 'Help' After interacting with the accounts' profiles and publications, the BBC was added to several WhatsApp channels and groups. When I asked one of the anonymous accounts if they could help me cross into Ceuta this weekend, they said yes and asked for "5,000 dirhams in advance" (R$2,800) for "information that will help me get into Ceuta." They said they had helped "a lot of people" cross before and that they would give me information about the sewer pipe that I could use to get to the enclave safely. The account confirmed that many other Instagram profiles help people cross to Ceuta in this way and requested payment "via bank account" with a specific money transfer service. But they didn't respond when I asked if I would receive a refund if the crossing was unsuccessful. They have since deleted several messages they sent to the account. Several accounts on Instagram make the crossing look easy Reproduction/BBC Part of the exchange of messages between the fictitious BBC account and one of the accounts, under a pseudonym, that claims to help Moroccan migrants reach Ceuta. Reproduction/BBC The same profile that gave this advice had already told my real BBC Instagram account that "this does not encourage immigration to Ceuta" — a message that several other profiles repeat. And the situation continues: posts on social media, actively recommended by the Instagram algorithm, announce another crossing attempt this weekend. This increases the risk of deaths and worsening diplomatic tensions between Morocco and Spain. Several of the profiles were removed from Instagram after the BBC contacted Meta, the platform's owner. "We have a team monitoring the situation in Ceuta in real time and removing content that violates our policies, including content that offers, facilitates or seeks human trafficking services," the company stated. Why the network is important Migrants swimming around the border fence Reproduction/BBC I first noticed the flood of content about Ceuta when I saw a viral video showing two women in wetsuits walking through the city. While the original Spanish-language post sought to deter migrants with the caption "Ceuta can't take it anymore", some versions shared by Moroccan and Arabic-speaking accounts changed the caption or cut it so that the video only showed the women walking freely. This was just one of hundreds of publications that we classified as "mirage" content — that is, that paint a misleading portrait of a place, distinct from reality. Some videos show groups of young men and women swimming happily in the sea — although many have drowned trying to follow the same route in recent weeks. Other reports show stories of people who managed to reach Ceuta and claim to have gone to Spain or continental Europe, although around 75,000 of the 78,000 new arrivals were returned to Morocco by authorities. There were many similarities in the profiles that shared this type of content. Nearly 40 of them had variations of the term "Haraga" and included Ceuta in their name or nickname, often with a Spanish flag as their profile picture and with the area codes of Morocco and Spain in the description. Haraga, in Arabic, translates as "those who burn" and is used colloquially to refer to migrants who arrive in a new location and burn or destroy documents so that they cannot be identified and deported back to their home countries. The history of these accounts, along with their posts and followers, indicated that most were run from Morocco, while some were possibly based in Spain or Italy. Many of them have existed for several years, but content about Ceuta has gained more visibility in recent weeks. The accounts are manipulating the algorithm with videos that talk about what it's like to live in Ceuta Reproduction/BBC These accounts managed to manipulate the algorithms of the main social networks by sharing emoticon content