It will cost around 260,000 euros and is to be launched in eight countries, including Tunisia, Morocco and India, whose share of asylum applications in this country has recently risen sharply, but which have “practically no chance of asylum,” as Karner emphasized at a press conference . The FPÖ sees this as an “expression of helplessness”.
Advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Google
Karner understands the “information offensive” as “counter-narrative or counter-marketing to the lies of the people-smugglers”. It is intended to debunk the “myths of migration” and to warn people against putting themselves in the hands of people smugglers. The central message is that there is “no way and no chance” for illegal migration. In some cases, “drastic subjects” are used, says Karner: “But that’s absolutely necessary.” You have to make it clear to people that they are risking their lives. Advertising is done on various social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, but also via Google.
Video: The campaign was unveiled at a press conference on Tuesday
The smugglers would react “extremely professionally and very quickly” to international phenomena such as Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, said Karner. They have changed their marketing and advertise that Europe is open and accepts people. “Anti-marketing” is now needed for this, according to Karner. In the future, if you search Google for cheap flights to Belgrade in India, Tunisia or Morocco, you will see corresponding subjects from the Ministry of the Interior in the respective national language, advising against doing so.
False hope for “Eldorado Europa”
Rasha Corti, who is a member of the Expert Council for Integration, comes from Syria and works as a translator for the police, spoke of an “economic abuse of the right to asylum”. In view of the high unemployment in the Maghreb or in Egypt, the smugglers would give people false hope that they could reach the “El Dorado Europe”. As a translator, she translated thousands of SMS and voice messages from people smugglers. Some of these are particularly brutal and inhuman. The business of the smugglers, who only acted out of greed for profit, is “very lucrative”.
Gerald Tatzgern from the Federal Criminal Police Office drew a similar picture: “Smugglers make a profit at the expense of the migrants.” Their communication is inhuman, they often describe people as “goods”. “The goods must not rot” is a synonym for “the migrants should not die”. “Throw away the fruit” means something like “dispose of the corpses,” said Tatzgern. The smugglers would also do aggressive advertising on messenger services such as Telegram, for example with motifs of cruise ships for the boat trip to Italy. “The negative publicity is therefore incredibly important,” said Tatzgern, because many would set out and had no idea what to expect.
FPÖ sees “expression of planlessness”
The FPÖ saw the announced online campaign as an “expression of the helplessness and planlessness of the black-green federal government”. Although such an action “basically makes sense”, according to FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer, it is not the last word in the current situation. On the one hand it comes “much too late”, on the other hand it has to be credible. “As long as Austria grants everyone who makes it into the country an ‘all-inclusive all-round service’ with high social benefits from day one, it cannot be credible,” says Amesbauer.
Source: Nachrichten
