Lighthouse Journalism found a video being shared widely on social media websites. The video featured people walking over a wooden bridge and entering boats.
It was being claimed that the video shows illegal Bangladeshi immigrants going back home. It was claimed that this was because of fear of SIR (Special Intensive Revision).
During the investigation, we found that the video was from Mongla, a port town in Bangladesh.
Claim:
Instagram user Nation Matters shared the video with a misleading claim.
Other users are also sharing the video with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
This led us to a video uploaded on TikTok on 28th October.
The video was uploaded on 28th October.
The text on the video written in Bangla was, Mongla, which is a port town in Bangladesh.
We checked the TikTok as well as the Facebook profile of the user. There were several videos from the same place.
Several videos of the Facebook user HM Raju Hawlader showcased Mongla port.
We found a video posted on Al Jazeera English YouTube handle, that had similar visuals of the town.
Similar videos from the port city were seen on YouTube.
The reverse image also led us to another video on TikTok, which was taken from the front angle, but had similar frames.
The caption suggested that it was from Mongla port in Bangladesh.
We also did a hashtag search on TikTok. And found several videos that had similar keyframes from the viral video.
Through this we also found a very similar video to that of the viral video being shared on TikTok.
The video was captioned ‘Mongla’.
We also contacted a fact checker from Bangladesh, Tanvir Mahatab Abir, who told us, “It is confirmed that this is indeed the Mongla Ghat in Bagerhat. Although the original video hasn’t been found, a comparison with other visuals confirms the location. The crowd seen here is due to the fact that garment workers regularly cross the river using this ghat to commute to and from their workplaces. Given the limited number of transport options compared to the large number of workers, such crowding is a regular scene at this ghat.”
Conclusion: Video from Mongla port in Bangladesh is being shared as recent from border areas in West Bengal, India, claiming that Bangladeshi immigrants are leaving the country. The viral claim is misleading.
