Photo from 2018 traced to Dominican Republic shared as detention centre in Assam - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
15th December 2019 / 12:21 pm / Last updated: 15th December 2019
In the wake of the Citizenship Amendment Act recently legislated by Parliament, a photograph has been shared on social media with the claim that it depicts the condition within the detention camp for illegal immigrants in Assam.
The above image, posted on Facebook by a user on December 13, has since been shared over 5000 times. The photograph has been posted with the caption ‘Detention camp (Assam)‘. The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 has led to widespread protests, particularly in the Northeast, over the provisions of the legislation which exclude illegal Muslim immigrants from eligibility for citizenship of India.
Alt News found that the photograph is not recent. Reverse-searching the image on Google, we found an article published on a Dominican Republic website El Tiempo, which contained a cropped version of the image. The article was dated February 15, 2019. According to the description, the photo depicts inmates at the La Romana prison in the Caribbean nation.
We also found the image on El Tiempo in an article dated May 11, 2018, stating that the photograph is from the La Romana prison.
The same image was also located on the Facebook page of a media company LosMocanos in the Dominican Republic. The image was described as, “Preventive jail of La Romana with a maximum capacity of 30 prisoners but currently holding 114. It is located in the courthouse of that city.” This post was made on April 7, 2019. Another media outlet based out of the country Quisqueyano Donde Quiera had shared the image on the same date with the identical caption.
Alt News found a similar photograph posted in July 2017, claimed to be of La Romana prison.
Cárcel preventiva de La Romana pic.twitter.com/lmDSwgB23p
— Francisco Albuez (@franciscoalbuez) July 9, 2017
While Alt News could not independently ascertain the origin of the photograph, it has been online since at least April 2018 and according to reports, pertains to the La Romana prison in the Dominican Republic. Moreover, we found similar images of the prison from 2017.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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