Old photos of shipwreck off Libya falsely shared as 'Greece migrant boat disaster'

One photo, which shows an overcrowded boat tilting to one side, was posted on Twitter here on June 18, 2023.

"Human trafficking seems to be going on with impunity in #Pakistan. Apparently nearly 400 people on board in boat carrying refugees to Greece were from Pakistan with more than 298 reported dead," the tweet reads in part.

The photo was tweeted alongside a similar claim in English and in Urdu.

Similar posts on Facebook and Twitter have shared another photo showing passengers of what appears to be the same boat falling into the sea.

Both photos were also shared together in a tweet here.

Image

Screenshots of false posts with the photos, taken July 12, 2023

The posts -- shared over 800 times -- surfaced online days after a fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants capsized and sank off Greece in the Ionian Sea on the night of June 13, 2023.

The incident happened within sight of the Greek coastguard and left at least 82 people dead.

Authorities in Europe still have no clear idea how many people were aboard the boat when it sank -- estimates range from 400 to over 700 -- but likely hundreds came from Pakistan, with many from Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Reverse image searches on Google, however, found the photos have been shared with false context.

Libya shipwreck

Both pictures were published by AFP here and here on May 25, 2016 (archived links here and here).

They have an identical caption which partly reads: "This handout picture released on May 25, 2016 by the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) shows the shipwreck of an overcrowded boat of migrants off the Libyan coast today.

"At least seven migrants have drowned after the heavily overcrowded boat they were sailing on overturned, the Italian navy said. The navy said 500 people had been pulled to safety and seven bodies recovered, but rescue operations were continuing and the death toll could rise."

AFP published both pictures in its report about the disaster (archived link).

Below is screenshot comparisons of the photos in the false posts (left) and the pictures published by AFP (right):

Image

Screenshot comparisons of the photos in the false posts (left) and the pictures published by AFP (right)

Approximately 650 people were aboard the boat and some 100 migrants might have drowned, according to a subsequent AFP report quoting the International Organization of Migration.

The same two pictures, also credited to the Italian navy, were also published in a CNN report about the shipwreck on May 26, 2016 (archived link).