Video of pilgrims in Turkey misrepresented as migrant rush to Spain's Ceuta
- Published on August 7, 2026 at 16:04
- 3 min read
- By Samad UTHMAN, Cristina ALONSO PASCUAL, AFP Spain, AFP Nigeria
Tens of thousands of migrants rushed into Spain's north African territory of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco in late July 2026, but a video circulating showing thousands of people walking across a hillside is unrelated to the influx. The person who took the video told AFP Fact Check that it shows pilgrims visiting a religious site in southeastern Turkey and was filmed weeks before Ceuta's migrant crisis.
"The tens of thousands of Moroccans flooding into Spain right now as the border gates between the 2 countries have been breached," reads the caption of a Facebook post published in Ghana on July 31, 2026.
The video shows crowds clambering across a hillside, with a campground visible in the valley below.
It circulated after tens of thousands of migrants poured into Spain's north African territory of Ceuta, most by swimming from the nearby Moroccan city of Fnideq (archived link).
Migration from Morocco into Spain's two north African territories, Ceuta and Melilla, has long been a politically sensitive issue between the two countries, as thousands cross the border at times.
But the unprecedented rush of irregular migrants from July 30 sparked tensions with Spain's EU partners, with Italy and Denmark calling for the country to be suspended from the bloc's visa-free Schengen travel zone.
Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the surge did not "compromise" the Schengen area, and that 70,000 out of 72,000 migrants who reached the territory had already been returned.
Those who remain face squalid living conditions with limited access to shelter, food, water and sanitation, AFP reporters in Ceuta saw.
Some 77 migrants died attempting to reach Ceuta, Spanish officials said on August 5 (archived link).
The same post has been shared in English on Facebook (here and here) and elsewhere in Chinese (here and here).
But the video does not show migrants attempting to reach Spain.
Pilgrimage in Turkey
Using Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes, AFP Fact Check traced the clip to a TikTok account called "bedri.caner5" which published the same footage on July 5, weeks before the migrant influx at Ceuta (archived link).
@bedri.caner5 binler sefineye duğru yola çıktı #cudi dağ #sefine♬ orijinal ses - Bedri caner
The TikTok video's caption also says it was filmed on Mount Cudi in southeastern Turkey (archived link).
Further reverse image searches led to the same clip shared on uploaded on Instagram on the same day (archived link).
The account features other similar clips posted since June 30, showing a landscape similar to that in the falsely circulating clip (archived here and here).
Both the TikTok and Instagram accounts belong to Bedri Caner, a journalist at Turkish digital media outlet Sirnak Haber 73.
"I filmed this video 28 days ago in the Cudi mountains, the area where Noah's Ark is believed to be located," he told AFP Fact Check on July 31.
He added that between 40,000 and 50,000 people went to visit the site for "commemorative and pilgrimage purposes".
The pilgrimage is part of the traditional Prophet Noah Commemoration Ceremony held annually at the beginning of July. The 2026 edition, the 5th annual festival, was held on July 4 and 5 and attended by Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus (archived here and here).
Sirnak Haber 73 published the clip in a report about the festival on July 5 (archived link).
A Facebook user also posted a photo showing the same tents at the festival seen in the later part of the falsely shared video (archived link).
AFP has debunked other false claims about the migrant influx in Ceuta.
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