Clip of migrant brandishing knife promising 'end of England' is AI-generated
- Published on July 10, 2026 at 07:00
- 3 min read
- By Dene-Hern CHEN, AFP Australia
Issues related to migrant arrivals in Britain frequently spark waves of misinformation that travel beyond Europe, including an AI fabrication depicting a machete-wielding man on a boat yelling about "the end of England". An analysis of the clip, which was shared as far away as New Zealand, found multiple visual errors often seen in synthetic content.
A New Zealand-based X user posted the video of the knife-wielding man on July 2, 2026.
In the clip, the man appears to yell "This is the end of England!" before tossing a stack of papers into the sea.
The same clip was also shared by mostly British social media users on Instagram and Facebook, with one post saying: "Illegal boat migrants brag 'this is the end of England' just before landing on English shores from France with a giant knife."
Thousands of migrants have arrived annually on the shores of southeast England in recent years after crossing the Channel from northern France in small boats.
The issue has become a central political issue in the UK, with the government seeking to stem the wave of irregular migrants which has fuelled rising anger on the far-right (archived link).
Frequent false claims made about migration have travelled from Europe and the UK to Australia and New Zealand, stirring comments from users who cite them as cautionary tales of what could happen on their shores.
The circulating video, however, is not genuine and has clear indications that it was AI-generated.
A spinning object unattached to the boat appears to be hovering behind the machete-wielding man's head, and his neck looks unnaturally stuck to his lifejacket. His machete also briefly disappears just as he flings the stack of papers into the sea.
An analysis of a still from the clip using the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify which was co-developed by AFP, found very strong evidence to suggest it was AI-generated. Audio isolated from the clip was also found to be very likely AI-generated.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a similar clip published by right-wing British outlet GB News on June 30 (archived link).
In their text story, GB News wrote about footage they "obtained exclusively" that showed individuals "tossing personal documents in the (English) Channel moments before arriving on British shores".
They claimed that a translation of one of the videos apparently had one man saying, "This is the end of England".
In the GB News clip, the man is beaming as he takes a selfie video to show others on the boat with him, with some objects being flung into the sea behind him. There is no mention of the man brandishing a big knife.
AFP was unable to locate the original videos shown by GB News.
More of our reporting on misinformation about migration issues can be found here.
Copyright © AFP 2017-2026. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
