50 Moroccans Become a “Migration Wave” in Brazil: The Falsehood Originating in Argentina
Around fifty Moroccans assisted over three months in Florianópolis were transformed into an “invasion” of Brazil. Launched by an Argentine website and amplified by accounts close to the right, the falsehood generated 13,400 mentions and recycled images from Ceuta.
Originally, there was neither a wave nor a mass arrival. The Scalabrini Catholic mission had simply indicated that it had assisted 50 Moroccan immigrants over three months in Florianópolis, in the state of Santa Catarina.
This limited figure took on an entirely different dimension on August 25. The Argentine website La Derecha Diario claimed that the arrival of Moroccans had “exploded” in southern Brazil and accused President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s migration policies. Yet the source on which it relied mentioned neither an explosion nor a decision by the Brazilian government.
The Observatório Lupa report reconstructed the spread of this story. Between August 21 and 27, the alleged “Moroccan wave” generated at least 13,400 mentions on social networks and websites: approximately 11,000 in Spanish and 2,000 in Portuguese.
Yet the official figures make the narrative collapse. Santa Catarina had recorded 57 asylum applications filed by Moroccans since the beginning of the year, representing only 1.86% of the 3,059 applications received in the state. Cubans had filed 1,707, Haitians 543, Venezuelans 227 and Argentinians themselves 61.
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The campaign then took on a directly political dimension. Christopher Marchesini, an Argentine influencer received by Javier Milei in May, accused Lula of encouraging Moroccan immigration and endangering the Argentine border. By August 27, his video had totaled 14,500 “likes,” 3,582 comments and 1,712 shares.
Ceuta Transported Thousands of Kilometers Away
To give a face to this untraceable “invasion,” the accounts involved used images that had nothing to do with Brazil. A photograph showing a crowd gathered by the sea actually came from the recent migration crisis in Ceuta.
The spectacular movements recorded in the Spanish enclave were thus relocated to Santa Catarina, on the other side of the Atlantic. Another post recycled a photograph of migrants packed onto a boat taken in September 2015.
The InformatePy account also announced the mass arrival of Moroccans in Santa Catarina with an image taken out of context. Its post had already reached 375,400 views and 3,000 shares when Lupa analyzed it.
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The investigation found no announcement from the Brazilian government, Florianópolis city hall, Brazilian diplomacy or the Moroccan embassy confirming a mass arrival of Moroccan nationals.
The mechanics of the falsehood therefore unfold in a few steps: 50 people assisted by an association become a migration explosion, Lula is designated as responsible, and then images taken in Ceuta and in 2015 manufacture the visual proof. In less than a week, this nonexistent “wave” had crossed Argentina and Brazil and generated hundreds of thousands of views.