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Instagram showing migrant’s illegal journey is fake

Migrant Instagram account

An Instagram account claiming to show a migrant’s illegal journey from Senegal to Spain convinced many, but it turns out that the account was completely fake.

According to the BBC, the account created under the username “Abdou Diouf” was set-up as a campaign to promote a photography festival.

The account was launched last a week, showing how “Abdou Diof” left his home in search of a better life in Europe. Along the way, he took selfies documenting his trip.

In one of the pictures, he is “hidden in the back of a trunk” crossing the border and in a later one, ‘Diof’ is on a small inflatable boat rowing in the dark.

Eventually, he reaches the Spanish shores and writes: “We tired but happy. Very danger trip.”

The account managed to attract international attention and built up over 11,000 followers.


One Instagram user commented: “Well done mate!! Congratulations for arriving safe to Spain!! I hope one day politicians will understand that we are all brothers and we share this world as our home…”

But slowly, details about the account weren’t adding up.

For one thing, “Abdou Diof” is the name of one of Senegal’s presidents, reported the Disphotic.

The man behind the fake account is Hagi Toure and appears to be a Spanish citizen.

The Gextophoto festival hired Oriol Caba of Volga, a Spanish production company, to produce a series of videos and images to promote the event and to raise questions about the use of photography, according to TIME.

“We were shocked to see it published on the Huffington Post and to see other media organizations follow it up,” Caba said.

According to TIME, the festival won’t be surprised if they receive some backlash for “trivializing this issue” of immigration.

“We are very respectful of these people going through such unbelievable struggles,” Caba said.