Old dashcam footage of migrants was filmed in France, not South Africa

“Illegal foreigners will be the end of us,” reads an X post published on July 10, 2024. 

The 30-second clip, filmed from inside a vehicle, shows several people climbing over the barriers of a road blocked with tree branches.

The X account is named “#PutSouthAfricansFirst” after the anti-immigrant movement turned political party Put South Africa First.

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Screenshot of the false X post, taken on July 12, 2024

One of the replies to the X post reads: “South Africa needs to stand up and defend itself.. Politicians failed us.” 

Calais Channel crisis

AFP Fact Check first debunked claims linked to the video in 2023. At the time, posts claimed that it showed the end and aftermath of US pandemic-era immigration restrictions.

However, a reverse image search of screenshots taken from the video led to the footage in a YouTube video published on September 20, 2016, by the German news site Der Spiegel (archived here).

Der Spiegel credited the dashcam recording to Polish truck driver Miroslaw Ferenc.

The outlet reported that Ferenc was driving toward the French port of Calais, where the Eurotunnel begins, when migrants laid branches across the road in an attempt to slow his vehicle, cling to it and ride to the United Kingdom.

The footage is dated September 6, 2016, with geodata in the top left corner.

AFP Fact Check entered the coordinates into Google Maps, which led us to a curve on the Calais South Interchange. 

Many dashcam videos filmed in 2016 near Calais show similar road-blocking tactics including here and here (archived here and here).

AFP reported on similar incidents in 2016 involving European truck drivers near Calais (archived here and here).

As reported at the time, including here and here, economic migrants risked the dangerous voyage from France to the UK in the hopes of reaching greener pastures (archived here and here).

While the large migrant camp in Calais known as the “Jungle” was demolished by police in 2016, migration along this route has continued. Smaller camps have regularly been dismantled (archived here and here).  

AFP recently reported that at least 19 people have lost their lives in 2024 so far while trying to get from France to the United Kingdom on small boats, and more than 12,300 people have made the journey (archived here). 

Immigration in South Africa

Despite having one of the world's highest unemployment rates, South Africa attracts many economic migrants from elsewhere on the continent (archived here).

The influx, coupled with a dim economic outlook, has led to sporadic bursts of anti-immigrant violence in recent years.

As AFP reported, electoral candidates during this year’s campaigning further stoked the flames of online hate and disinformation by tapping into xenophobic sentiment and blaming foreigners for the nation's problems (archived here).