The UN refugee agency has revealed it is facing an increase in online attacks from the far-right over its efforts to highlight the plight of those fleeing conflict and persecution.
The agency has used its own online platforms to tell refugees' stories as some mainstream media outlets face cuts to their foreign reporting budgets. The content produced usually involves first-hand interviews to shine a light the challenges encountered by the 123.2 million refugees and displaced people around the world.
But Matt Saltmarsh and Omer Elnaiem, who develop content for the agency, told The National that work had become a target for far-right users. “There’s a lot of hate speech that comes through on social media,” Mr Saltmarsh said. "There are attacks on refugees and there’s a lot of misinformation that goes round very quickly."
In response to a UNHCR post about 250 Rohingya refugees missing at sea, a far-right user accused the UN of supporting extremism at the expense of western society.
The user described the UN as "devious" and called for steps to be taken to "defund and dismantle all that is". Another user responded to a post on X about 33,000 Congolese refugees by claiming they would not be welcome in Europe.
'Weaponisation of refugees'
Growing hostility towards refugees and asylum seekers in public political debates has also forced the agency to rely on its own platforms to increase awareness. The “political framing” of refugees as a “migrant wave” or “influx” had become a "lazy trope" - often sidelining stories of compassion and community, the content creators said.
“Another issue is the weaponisation of refugees and migrants,” Mr Saltmarsh said. “It’s much more rare to talk about the compassion and the support and the community outreach that goes towards the people who welcome those refugees."
That compounded the agency’s funding challenges. Mr Elnaiem, who is the agency’s head of global content in Africa, said public opinion about the refugee crisis had changed. “Once upon a time it was about the stories of resilience,” he said at SXSW festival in London. "It was about showing that refugees are like us – they have dreams and hopes like everybody else. They want to contribute. Now the story is shifting. We need to justify why this funding is important."
The agency has to cut back on projects because of funding shortages, as growing nationalism and a focus on defence spending in western governments has caused countries to make sharp cuts to foreign aid budgets. Almost 10 per cent of the global refugee population – or 11 million people – lost UNHCR funding this year, with further reductions expected, Mr Saltmarsh told SXSW festival.
Misinformation risks
Online misinformation about refugees and asylum seekers has led to unrest and violence across Europe. There is also concern that misinformation is aggravated by statements from politicians and other public figures.
Mr Saltmarsh urged people to establish the facts before “jumping to conclusions” and sharing potentially false information online. “We’ve seen a number of countries where the information circulating online has been skewed not verified, and where the result has been attacks on refugees and migrants," he added.
The agency was “not blind” to cases in which refugees and asylum seekers had committed crimes. “There have been incidents involving asylum seekers who have done awful things. And of course they should be subject to the force of the law,” he said.
UN in the crosshairs
UN agencies have become vulnerable as the world body is faced with crisis in confidence from increasingly nationalist governments around the world. Its work in Gaza led to the spread of misinformation that affected various levels of the UN, from its headquarters in New York to its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
“Gaza was a classic example. A lot of other UN agencies, like the UN headquarters in New York, Unicef, UN Women and especially UNRWA were the targets of systematic information attacks,” Mr Saltmarsh said.
The agencies were not equipped to deal with the flood of online attacks. “It's very difficult from the UN's perspective to defend yourself against that and to get into an information conflict because of the impartiality, the neutrality and the fact that it’s not what we do, and it's not what we're about,” he added. “The only approach we can take is to keeping telling people what we do, and to tell that to the partners, rather than to escalate."
