50 Moroccans become a “migratory wave” in Brazil: the disinformation originating in Argentina

Initially, there was neither a wave nor a mass arrival. The Scalabrini Catholic mission had simply stated 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 blamed the migration policies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Yet the source on which it relied mentioned neither an explosion nor any 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.

The official figures nevertheless bring the narrative crashing down. 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 putting the Argentine border at risk. 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 elusive “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 crammed onto a boat, taken in September 2015.

The InformatePy account also announced the mass arrival of Moroccans in Santa Catarina with an out-of-context image. 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 disinformation therefore consist of a few stages: 50 people assisted by an association become a migratory explosion, Lula is designated as responsible, and then images taken in Ceuta and in 2015 manufacture the visual evidence. In less than a week, this nonexistent “wave” had crossed Argentina and Brazil and generated hundreds of thousands of views.