The head of the Welsh Refugee Council has said her staff have been “harassed” and “threatened” after Elon Musk, the social media boss and world’s richest man, had shared a post featuring claims about the charity. Mr Musk, the owner of Tesla and X as well as a close associate of President-elect Donald Trump, has 212m followers on the social media channel he owns.
Mr Musk shared a post which suggested videos of girls were being used to “entice” migrants to the UK. The video, from 2023, was made as a school project and involved a group of pupils explaining why they thought Wales was a welcoming country for refugees and discussing the work of the charity. They say: “We welcome anyone and everyone” and speak about the support offered by the Welsh Refugee Council including English classes and help applying for benefits or housing. The pupils then share some examples of the Welsh language. The post, which was shared by an account and reposted by Musk, accused the charity of “using 12-year-old girls… to entice migrant men to come to Wales” and has been viewed more than 5.7m times.
Andrea Cleaver is chief executive of Welsh Refugee Council. She told BBC Radio Wales on Tuesday that since Mr Musk had promoted the comments on Saturday night they have had to ensure the safety of their staff, volunteers, and those they support. “We have been working closely with the police to report all hate crimes, all messages that show threats or violence so they can build their body of evidence, and ensure action is taken,” she said. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
Ms Cleaver said they have received messages of violent imagery where their photos have been shared as have their office locations. They have had messages, Ms Cleaver said, making threats like: “We know where you live – we’re coming to get you”. She added: “On Sunday we held a briefing with our trustees. Welsh Government staff were present, and wider staff, to explain to them what was happening and the adjustments we were making to our work and the security systems we have in place to make sure they are protected and can get on and do their job.”
Asked about the video itself she said it was footage produced in 2023. They had visited a school and explained what it is like to be a refugee and the Refugee Convention. “It was really a history piece about what it means to be a refugee in history and following that visit the school decided to create a video of welcome and the true intention of the video was to show positivity and inclusion and it’s deeply hurtful both to us, and the school, that those intentions have been taken out of context,” continued Ms Cleaver.
She said the video was not created by the charity and was not intended to be an advert. When the video was initially published two years ago the charity shared the video but there was what she described as “quite a lot of backlash from those who may be considered as holding far-right views” so it was taken down with immediate effect by the school and the charity.
Former Welsh Conservative group leader Andrew RT Davies has also commented about it on X, accusing the Labour Welsh Government of using schoolchildren as “propaganda” to promote an “ideologically-motivated project”. Mr Davies added it was “highly inappropriate for a political organisation to be going into schools and using children in propaganda like this”.
In a statement he has said: “This video was produced as part of a project involving the Welsh Refugee Council. In it students referred to the Welsh Government’s highly controversial Nation of Sanctuary. The council went into the school as part of a ‘refugee day’. On its website it claimed students made videos to ‘make it loud and clear sanctuary-seekers are welcome in Wales as well as signposting refugees and asylum-seekers to the services we provide’.
“Britain has a track record helping those in need but schoolchildren should not be used in videos like this. I make no apologies for calling it out.”
Ms Cleaver said: “When we’re hearing from politicians saying that video should be taken down – it’s already been taken down, it isn’t being circulated by us in any shape or form. To keep telling the public that harmful narrative is just completely false.”
She was asked about claims from Mr Davies that the charity should not be going into schools. “It’s an interesting [point] and one we’re going to be taking on board as feedback but I think every time a politician like Andrew RT Davies posts a video it’s them that is continuing to cause harm to communities.
“What we’re asking all politicians to do is to fact-check before they carelessly post on issues like this because we know the video was taken down, we know the true intent of the video was around inclusion and creating a sense of community and empathy, so to keep posting these harmful narratives is not something we’re going to be standing for. We’re asking all politicians to think carefully before they post something that has the ability to divide communities.”
She said they are referring his comments to the standards commissioner who monitors behaviour of Senedd politicians. South Wales Police is also looking into an allegation of malicious communications. A statement reads: “An allegation of malicious communications was reported at around 11.30pm on Saturday, January 11, concerning a post on the social media platform X.”
The user who posted the video has said on X: “I am currently being investigated by South Wales Police for my post about the Welsh Refugee Council using young girls to entice migrants who want to move to Wales. I do not live in Britain but they might try to extradite me for this. This is peak insanity.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The claims relating to this video are untrue and utterly irresponsible. The video in question was produced by a group of young children to show their school as a welcoming place. The video was withdrawn in 2023 following extensive online abuse received by the school. Anybody who cares about the safety of our young people should not be sharing false claims about them.”