People Violating Lockdown in Gujarat? No, Image is from Malaysia

The image is old and shows Bangladeshi immigrants stuck in Malaysia.

CLAIM

An image of hundreds of people cramped in an alley is being circulated to claim that it shows lockdown violation in Gujarat. The image is being used to insinuate that these are migrant workers and homeless people who have nowhere to go.

The claim reads: “ये फोटो #गुजरात का बताया जा रहा है। इनको भुल जाओ और जमाती में फंसे रहे? इसको कहते है राजनीति असल मुद्दा से नजर हटाना और धर्म और जात पात में उलझा देना हाय रे हमारे भारत वासियों |” [Translation: This is from Gujarat. Should we ignore and only talk about the Jamaatis? This is called the politics of diverting from real issues and fooling people in the name of caste and religion.]

As on 16 April, Gujarat has 695 coronavirus cases with 30 recorded deaths.

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The image is also being circulated on Twitter with the same claim.

TRUE OR FALSE?

The image is being circulated with a misleading claim. It does not show the plight of migrant workers or homeless people in Gujarat but shows Bangladeshi refugees in Malaysia waiting to go back home.

WHAT WE FOUND

We conducted a Google reverse image search and found a report dated 25 December 2019 by a Bangladesh based news website, Daily Fulki which carried the same image.

As per the report, thousands of immigrants crowded at Malaysia’s immigration office after the country announced to facilitate the 'Back for Good' program for repatriation of illegal foreigners.

Another report by JagoNews24 corroborated the details. “The migrants from different countries have been waiting a long time before opening the counter at 9 am, early or before midnight. Thousands of immigrants are waiting in line, but on an average, 8 special passes are being issued every day from an immigration office. The rest have to be in line in anticipation of the next day,” the report stated.

Hence, an old image of Bangladeshi immigrants in Malaysia is being shared to claim that it shows a violation of COVID-19 lockdown in Gujarat.

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