Learning English

The plight of migrants is all over the news. So it’s no surprise that an Instagram account which apparently belonged to a migrant travelling from Senegal to Europe captured people’s imaginations. He got many followers very quickly. But who were they actually following? Come with us to find out.

To do

Read this article about the fake migrant profile. Then tell us: who is the man in the pictures? The answer is at the bottom of the article.

Read the text and complete the activity

Part 1
Recent attempts by thousands of Africans and Syrians to reach Europe have been described in the media as a 'migrant crisis', attracting a huge amount of public interest. So it’s no surprise that some 8,000 social media users decided to follow the account in the name of Abdou Diouf from Dakar. Selfies started to appear online, claiming to show the dangerous journey of a young man seeking a better life.

Part 2
It was a good story – this migrant was putting the audience in his shoes. One day there he was – the smiling man with his family. Then, a haircut – maybe the last chance for grooming before the big adventure. But in the next chapter, drama! Abdou Diouf’s picture showed him in a dark place. The caption: “The only way to cross, a small inflatable boat all night rowing. Really scared.” We can guess that he was crossing the Mediterranean.  Another day, and he might have reached Europe – a new picture and a comment in broken English: “Finally the land os opportunities. We tired but happy, Very danger trip.”

Part 3
The young man’s journey across continents was received with mixed reactions. One commentator left no doubt how he felt about migrants. He wrote in capital letters: “FED UP WITH ALL YOU MILLIONS OF PEOPLE TRYING TO GET HERE, THERE IS NO PLACE FOR YOU HERE AND NO WORK, NO DREAM.” Others encouraged the young man to keep going with comments like “I wish you the best” and “may God make it easy for you”.

Part 4
We can only imagine how people felt when it was revealed that the story was not true! The name on the account? It was borrowed from a former president of Senegal. The blog Disphotic, run by photographer and London College of Communication lecturer Lewis Bush, revealed that this migrant story was a hoax. Some of the hashtags used such as #LovingLife, #IllegalDreamer, #instalike and #instagramers looked a bit suspicious. The background on the photos and list of account contacts helped to give the game away.

Part 5
So who was this guy and what was he doing? The man in the pictures is said to be a Spanish citizen called Hagi Toure, a handball player who’s been living in the same city for more than 10 years. He was just playing a role. The city is Barcelona, the place where all the pictures were taken. The account in the name of Abdou Diouf was created by a Spanish advertising agency for a photography exhibition about travel. Tomas Pena, one of the project’s directors, told the BBC: “We cast a bunch of people to appear in the campaign”. He says the account had the objective of making Europeans think about their attitudes towards migrants travelling to Europe from Africa. “We treat them like animals, and looking at the comments, there are some really racist comments. It’s quite sad”, concludes Pena.

Part 6
Lewis Bush expressed concern for the hoax. “If an account like this is fake, where does that leave other bits of evidence of the hardships and dangers migrants face at home and during their odysseys to Europe?” The lesson for social media users might be to be less trusting about what they see online, while not turning their backs on the suffering of people in difficult situations which are real.

Answer to our question:

The man in the picture is Hagi Toure, a handball player who has been living in Barcelona for more than 10 years. He was hired as an actor to play the role of a migrant.

To do

Here are more questions for you to check how much of the article you can understand.

End of Session 3

How did you do in the quiz? Join Finn in Session 4 where he's looking at lots of different ways to say sorry.