A MEME ABOUT the treatment of Irish people at airports and some asylum seekers arriving to Ireland shows contrasting images — one of a person going through a scanner, the other of about seven men walking along, seemingly unimpeded.

However, the comparison is misleading on a number of points, most notably that neither image was taken in Ireland.

“You at the airport,” the left-hand side of the image shows, along with a photo of a person being scanned by a giant machine.

Next to this appears another photo showing men walking along, with the title “unknown, unvetted men in Rosslare.”

A version of the meme posted into an Irish fringe Facebook group on 18 November has been shared more than 1,100 times.

Other versions of the image appear to have been shared in the past, though they suggest that the image of the asylum seekers was taken at the US-Mexico border

However, the image titled “you at the airport” is misleading – it was taken in the United States, as demonstrated by the clearly readable patches on better quality versions of the photo found online by The Journal.

Similarly, the image said to show “unknown, unvetted men in Rosslare” does not show Rosslare, nor anywhere else in Ireland. The photo was taken in south-east England.

It shows a group of men who had been “brought in to Dungeness, Kent, onboard the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat, following a small boat incident in the Channel” in 2022, according to its description on Alamy, a stock photo agency.

The misuse of imagery is a tactic regularly deployed by anti-immigrant groups, though these tend to mislead viewers rather than demonstrate any type of political argument.

This year, The Journal has debunked a fake RTÉ article claiming asylum seekers would stay at a children’s hospital; footage from Germany said to show “unvetted illegals” in Dublin; a pro-refugee rally that was falsely shared as an anti-immigrant protest; and an AI -generated image of a burning house that was said to have been attacked by asylum seekers.

Many images were misused to tarnish political parties over issues relating to immigration, including hoax posters said to show Sinn Féin and People Before Profit’s migrant policies; fake ads saying Sinn Féin were selling Burqas; and a deepfake video of Simon Harris congratulating anti-migrant groups.

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