Old Image Shared as Recent Afghan Refugees Evacuating Kabul
The Claim
An image of male Afghan refugees on a plane after evacuating Kabul.
News posted on
Emerging story
An image is widely circulating on social media, depicting a plane with male passengers. The claim is that the men in the image are Afghan refugees being transported to Western countries, either the United States of America or to Europe. Many users were angry that there were no women or children on board.
Misbar’s Analysis
MENA: The Misbar team examined the claim and found it to be misleading. A Google reverse image search revealed the image was uploaded in 2018. The Turkish news site Anadolu Agency had uploaded the image on their website, as seen below.
The article’s headline, translated from Turkish, reads, “6,846 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan returned to their country.” In April 2018, the plane commissioned by the Turkish government deported illegal immigrants from Afghanistan who had entered through Iran back to their country of origin. It just so happened that all those who made the long trip were males.
The claim comes as the Taliban seize power in Afghanistan, causing mass immigration of Afghans to safety. However, the image is outdated and is unrelated to the current events, as it showed illegal immigrants being deported from Turkey in 2018. Based on the findings, the Misbar team confirms the claim is misleading.
