Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) presented an online campaign against illegal migration on Tuesday (see video above). It will cost around €260,000 and will be launched in eight countries, including Tunisia, Morocco and India, whose share of asylum applications has risen sharply in this country recently, but which have “practically no chance of asylum”, as Karner emphasized on a press conference.
Karner interprets the “information offensive” as “counter-narrative or counter-marketing against the lies of the traffickers”. It aims to dispel the “myths of migration” and warn people not to put themselves in the hands of smugglers.
“No way and no chance for illegal migration”
The central message is that there is “no way and no chance” for illegal migration. In some cases, “drastic topics” are used, Karner says, “But that’s absolutely necessary.” You have to make it clear to people that they are putting their lives on the line. Advertising is done on various social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, but also via Google.
The smugglers would respond “extremely professionally and very quickly” to international phenomena such as the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Karner said. They have changed their marketing and advertise that Europe is open and accepting people.
“Anti Marketing”
This now requires ‘anti-marketing’, says Karner. In the future, if you search on Google for cheap flights to Belgrade in India, Tunisia or Morocco, you will see corresponding topics from the Ministry of Interior in the respective national language and do not recommend it.
Expert Council member support
Rasha Corti, a member of the Expert Council for Integration, who is from Syria and works as a translator in the police, spoke of “economic abuse of the right to asylum”. Given the high unemployment in North African countries, the smugglers would give people false hopes that they could reach the “El Dorado Europe”.
As a translator, she translated thousands of text and voice messages from people smugglers. Some of these are particularly cruel and inhumane. The smugglers’ business, who traded solely for profit, is “very lucrative”.
Smugglers make profit at the expense of migrants
Gerald Tatzgern of the Federal Bureau of Investigation painted a similar picture: “Smugglers make profit at the expense of migrants.” Their communication is inhumane and they often describe people as “goods”. “The goods must not rot” is a synonym for “the migrants must not die”.
“Discard the fruit” means something like “Discard the corpses,” Tatzgern said. The smugglers would also advertise aggressively on courier services such as Telegram, for example with cruise ship motives for the boat trip to Italy. “The negative publicity is therefore incredibly important,” Tatzgern said, as many would leave and had no idea what to expect.
Source: Krone
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