A video of a group of people including women and children relocating from one place to another by climbing mountains has recently been shared with a false claim that it shows a glimpse of people who are entering Manipur illegally from the neighbouring Myanmar.
BOOM found that the video captures visuals of a nomadic family travelling in Iran.
Several fierce clashes between the Hindu majority Meitei and minority Christian Kuki-Zo community have kept Manipur burning since May this year. The conflicts over prolonged demands have claimed the lives of at least 100 people apart from vandalism of buildings, religious places and gangrapes in the state. The north-eastern state has also struggled with a prolonged problem of illegal immigration as several families from both the communities have their roots in Myanmar. On August 10, Mizo National Front's (MNF) Rajya Sabha MP K Vanlalvena criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah for asserting that tribals in Manipur are citizens of Myanmar and said that these tribals have a historical presence in the state.
The video is being shared with a Hindi caption that translates to, "Thieves' way from Myanmar to Manipur..... (See) How they risk their lives to come to India. So much problem they have. Tell these people, they should comfortably live where they are living. They are putting the lives of small children at stake."
(Original Text in Hindi: म्यान्मार से मणिपुर का चोर रास्ता..... कैसे अपनी जान बचाने जान की बाजी लगा के भारत मे ये लोग आते है कितनी परेसानी है इनको बताओ जहा रह रहे वहा आराम से रहो छोटे छोटे बच्चो की ज़िंदगी दाव पर लगा रहे हैं साले)
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Fact Check
We performed a reverse image search on one of the keyframes and found several posts on Facebook from April this year carrying the same video.
The videos were uploaded with Central Kurdish captions mentioning that the people in the video are Kurdish, an ethnic group who reside in the mountainous region of Kurdistan.
Click here to view one such post.
Taking a cue, we ran a related keyword search and found that a longer version of the video was uploaded on a Turkey-based YouTube channel named DENA on March 12, 2023.
The channel mentioned that the video is from Iran and uploaded the video with the caption, "An Iranian nomadic family with three young children travels a difficult path to reach their destination".
We also compared the visuals from the viral clip and the video uploaded on the Turkey-based YouTube channel. It can be seen below.
The channel in its description states that it "shows the life of Iranian nomads" and contains multiple visuals showing mountain life of Iranian people on it. Several such videos can be viewed here, here and here.
According to Council on Foreign Relations, "The Kurds are one of the world’s largest peoples without a state, making up sizable minorities in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Their century-old fight for rights, autonomy, and even an independent Kurdistan has been marked by marginalization and persecution."
