By: Rajini KG
April 11 2023
Altered image shows U.K. MP Suella Braverman standing next to a model of a concentration camp for migrants in Rwanda
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
Braverman's photo has been Photoshopped onto a 2016 image of a student posing with a model of an Auschwitz camp and shared with a false narrative.
Claim ID 245a3f73
Context
An image of U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman posing with a model of camp-like structures is circulating on social media, with a caption claiming that she is posing with a model of a center to house illegal immigrants in Rwanda. The claim went viral shortly after Braverman visited Rwanda in March 2023, after she introduced the Illegal Migration Bill in the House of Commons on March 7. According to a report in Reuters, under this bill, "asylum seekers will be detained without bail before they are deported to their home country or, if this is not deemed safe, another safe third country."
The U.K. government signed an agreement with Rwanda in April 2022, which states that some asylum seekers who illegally enter the U.K. will be relocated to Rwanda to claim asylum.
A Facebook user shared a screengrab of a Twitter post with the caption, "Live from #Rwanda, Braverman is shown the detailed model of the migrants 'holiday camp'..." The picture shows Baverman standing with a man in front of a camp-like miniature model.
However, this image is fake. Braverman's photograph has been digitally added to an old image of a student project of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
In Fact
Through a reverse image search, we found that the picture in question has been digitally manipulated. The original image, published in 2016 in The Forward, shows a boy standing in front of a replica of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. According to The Forward, Baltimore City College High School student Andrew Altman created the wooden 20-square-foot miniature of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 2016.
Braverman visited Rwanda between March 17-18, 2023, to visit the proposed location for homes to accommodate the illegal migrants transported from the U.K, and shared pictures on her Twitter account on March 19. One of the images she shared on Twitter, where she is standing with a man wearing a blue cap in front of a model of a migrant camp, has been cut out and added to the photograph of Altman’s Auschwitz-Birkenau model.
The Verdict
An image of Suella Braverman's visit to Rwanda's immigrant camps has been photoshopped onto a photograph of a U.S. student's model of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp and falsely linked to the illegal migrants’ bill in the U.K. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.