Staff at a refugee charity in Wales say colleagues have had “their lives threatened” after Elon Musk shared a social media video suggesting young girls are being used to “entice” migrants to the UK.
The Tesla billionaire shared a video posted by the Welsh Refugee Council (WRC) in 2023 which was shot by year seven students at Brynteg School, who wanted to welcome refugees escaping the war in Ukraine.
The students had heard from refugees fleeing the war with Russia and learnt about the journey refugees take, but a post on X suggested the girls were being used as “propaganda” by the Welsh Government’s Nation of Sanctuary plan, which aims to help refugees and asylum seekers integrate into Welsh communities.
The misleading post was also shared by the former leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, Andrew RT Davies, who accused Labour Welsh government ministers of using schoolchildren to promote an “ideologically motivated project”.
Sharing the video to X, he wrote: “Schoolchildren are being used in propaganda for Labour Senedd ministers’ ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ plan.
“Under this ideologically motivated project, Labour wanted to pay ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS £1,600 a month. Unacceptable.”
South Wales Police said it was looking into an allegation of malicious communications.
Andrea Cleaver, the chief executive of WRC, said the video “was never intended as an advert to encourage migration and was shared to show the positivity of pupils”.
The charity said the video was removed shortly after its publication, due to a “hostile backlash” and it being “used out of context”.
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