On December 30, 2019, Twitter handle @GoSlowplz tweeted a video and wrote, “Plz save these ladies. What the hell have done modi. Rt” The video shows an image of women locked behind bars and carries an audio clip where the narrator says, “You will be shocked to see this video. Share this video widely. Narendra Modi says, educate the girl, save the girl. But see how they are mistreated here and no one’s come to help. You will share this video if you are my brother. Do not delete.” The clip has been shared in the backdrop of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Plz save these ladies. What the hell have done modi. Rt pic.twitter.com/j039Qa8vwu
— Retweet Sarkar™️ (@GoSlowplz) December 29, 2019
Another Twitter user @IndurChhugani shared it and wrote, “Ladies put in jail. They pleading and seeking YOUR help. Retweet.”
Ladies put in jail.
They pleading and seeking YOUR help.Retweet.pic.twitter.com/jDIFfUkaQe
— Indur Chhugani (@IndurChhugani) December 30, 2019
PHOTO DATES BACK TO AT LEAST 2015
Alt News reverse-searched the image on Yandex and found that it has been available on the internet at least since 2015. It was shared by a YouTube channel Rohingya Vision on April 7, 2015. As per the channel, a Rohingya boy died due to human trafficking.
We found that Rohingya Vision regularly shares videos related to Rohingyas. The same photograph posted by several websites as well in 2015. Among them was arakanna.com which wrote an article on April 15, 2015 – “Rohingya refugees in Thailand complain of being raped in prison.”
According to another website islahhaber.net, “Hundreds of people kidnapped from the Rohingya refugee camp in Thailand were announced to be sold to organ mafia by some people. According to human rights activists, Rohingya Muslims, who escaped from the pressure of the Buddhist gangs and the Arakan government in the region, took refuge in Thailand.” The report is in Arabic.
Based on this, we performed a keyword search on Google and found media reports from 2015 which talked about Rohingyas who became victims of trafficking in Thailand.
While Alt News was unable to independently verify the photograph, as per several websites it depicts Rohingyas who fled to Thailand to evade persecution in Arakan or Rakhine state of Myanmar. However, the photograph’s availability since 2015 proves that it does not represent any incident related to the recently passed CAA.
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