A site slipping seamlessly under the cover of the trees and shrubs. The salt of explosions in the distance back of the clinic, a small truck arrives inside my pen a in labor and moaning in pain. They how are you her into the surgery. She and her family are also displaced from the home. That took them 7 hours to get to the clinic. She does my lou and we had to carry her with a hammock there, around 8 people carrying down the mountain. Then we took a car along the rough jungle road. It was so difficult. We didnt know how to relieve her pain. They put her on a trip, but theres only so much the doctor could do. Hes worried the long jenny may have home the expecting mother and the baby inside. Very quickly, the child is blown. But its not breeding. Its skin color is turning purple to the doctor quickly gets to work as vital seconds take away. And then the sound everyone has been hoping to hear smiles and really for the family in the medical stuff. But a new arrival in a very uncertain world. Tony chewing out as their tie in state me m find in the the special reports from inside the main la tony chang, meets people who have let the military giantess new construction. You can find more information and features on my website. Ill just say that the news continues handful notes, and thats off to the stream. Stay with us on the in depth analysis of the days headlines that is the failure to free the captive still being held by him. I asked how difficult a moment is this for 5 minutes with nothing you know, who is trying to stay indifferently as 5 minutes to the know the to stay possibly out of j. Frank assessments, how to relations decline between the media and the United States of america . The crux of the matter is new jazz choice of Ministry Partners and specifically russia inside story on al jazeera, most of us use social media to shut off. They will stay in touch with loved ones. But for some people, it is quite literally a lifeline. Migrants often use social media to know any communicate with loved ones abroad, but also to document that johnnys, im game Vital Information for the safety. So how is social media impacting migrant jennings . Primary impulse, well, this is the stream, the k, i n. C. The largest deforestation after lots of people die on these journey. New york knows most limits, illegal immigration, none the control of our borders. The refugees have been known to use facebook to quote for help. If they get stranded, see im even to ask which tends to purchase that johnny, but criminal gangs also use social media to advertise dangerous crossings. Love potential victims. And this episode will be discovering the role that social media plays in the choices being made by those risking it. Oh, for a better future. Hey, to discuss this with me. Uh, is that we got an uh, an independent migration policy reset to advocate um, right. Uh, joining us from london from oxford, sent me 9 on the poet, access to make an offer of the book seeking refuge. 2016 on Carlos Eduardo s b. Not an immigrant rights activist law student who provides legal advice on migration to his 8400000 father is on 6 talk. He joins us from washington dc. Welcome to you. Oh, thank you for being a zoe. Ill start by asking you you research migration. Today, migrants produce a huge Digital Footprints documenting the roots and its pitfalls what kind of changes, how social media brought. So the experience of on documents it migrants. Right, thanks for having me. Yeah, i mean, i think that at the moment um, what we see when were working with migrants, especially when theyve just arrived. The most important thing that they ask for the 1st thing they have asked for as a charger for that phone. So that smart phones because that has become the way in which they receive all the information. Keep in touch with that families and loved ones back home and is become a huge part of how theyre able to make the journey so that they make. So i think it was like, the key thing is just access to information. So theres a huge amount of information that i set across social media by migrants and by other actors in, in interact thing with my grand speed that i was a smugglers and facilitators, and fixes or, and also governments who are seeking to influence the movement of people across the board as well. So its, its a huge space for information, some of the size positive. It helps people to avoid danger. And unfortunately, because its a totally unregulated spaces. Also a place where theres a huge amount of misinformation being shad im and that can be both bice level is but also governments of who are sharing information that is designed to prevent people from making jenny safely to reach destination countries. Um, we will definitely be coming back to that carlos im you provide legal advice mainly in spanish to you. Millions of follow is on social media. Tell us about what kind of content does best with your follow is and also what motivates you to create that. So yeah, no, thank you for having me. So i create content in spanish for my audience. A lot of them are immigrants, or people who plan on emigrating to the United States. And mostly what i provide is not so much legal advice. Just information in general. Thats out there, but maybe people dont know how to find it or they have trouble breaking it down. So for example, the United States government launch is a new policy or changes certain regulations. Theres always a lot of misinformation around a lot of confusion. So i get these very complicated topics and i break them down and make them easy to understand. And in the language that people, you know, are able to, to comprehend because its not very helpful if the government is putting out things in english and most migrants dont understanding was so i just trying to break down that barrier. Uh, go to a trusted sources, find that information and then im able to pick out, you know, this is what people should know and then i put it out there. So whatever it is that people are doing, at least that they are informed and they know of whats really going on. And like i was mentioned previously, its, they dont fall into the trap of believing in misinformation or lies, or, you know, deceiving a things that are being put out there on social media. And youre telling us also maybe what motivates you in this work that you do as yeah, well, i just believe, you know, uh, i believe in truth, i believe that immigration is a human right. And that, you know, if people are going to make this decision will they should be aware of the possible consequences the risks associated. And you. Ready i also do a lot of content about alternative pathways. So, you know, i tried to encourage people who are maybe thinking of taking a legal routes of immigration, of being aware that there is a lot of legal pathways as well to immigrate to the United States. Thats mostly what i focus on because im here in the United States, but i know theres also a lot of leaving ways in other countries. And, you know, people shouldnt be made aware of those because sometimes they want to emigrate legally. They just dont know how to or dont understand the process. So i try to help break that down as well. Thank you so much. Well, for me, you have written a book seeking refuge in 2060, which features and nigerian boy who set soft 3 of us the heart does. It does not full see the odyssey of trials and tribulations which await him. How social media made it easier or harder for migrants to full . See the challenges ahead and youll, you indeed, and theres 2 main characters and hes, hes one of them. And the other one is a video game kid in the u. K. Who gets recruited to the home office to stop mike . Stop me. Stop michael until refugee is getting in. But yeah, i mean, so in the book, one of the smugglers in the book says to came, take the journey, see, right, to germany, make you a new home in paris or rome, hire a fleet to take you to greece. As long as you pay, you get to you k. Now, whats that . Thats an adverb because were talking about an economic market. Hayes and economic market, which some people say is illegal elicit. But then some other people would say that the shipping of Asylum Seekers to the one that is equal and then they sit by the end of the dates. Were talking about a place where uh, products is being advertised and both smoking as im traffic is because there is a distinction between the 2. Are working in this space and people are wanting information. Theyre wanting to compact people that want to compare Different Service providers. Because some of the Service Providers will have you drowning in the mediterranean o dying and as hard as the other ones will get you to europe or get you to the places you want to go. And so were talking about the method is a tool at the end of the day. Social media is a tool, and its a tool which can be used by nefarious actors, which also can be used by actors who have good intentions. I mean, social media as a refugee themselves concert on social media when theyre at the pool is made or somewhere the case to life jackets. And i bought both, im one of them actually works and the other one is fake. And this is how you tell the difference. So theres plenty of information which can be said through social media. Well, in 2021, david yamba was stood outside the you and hcr headquarters in tripoli in libya to process the treatment of refugees and migrants in the country. A process which lost it over 3 months. At the time he was himself being south, sit on today, hes a Spokes Person at the n g o. Refugees in libya, that system set him. I am a person with the very hardball experience is starting from my country of origin and having left my country to reach a several other countries as a refugee and then on to libya, towards the end of 2018 where i was subjected to unimagined no, i mean much novel atrocities, human rights violations, torture, exploitations and slash level. We have been afraid of persecution. We started using social media longer, go to document and publish what was happening. But until then, we had to remodel those mosque because we couldnt be over it anymore. We had to tell our stories, unfiltered as it was. We had to use social media when we were stuck in the street in front of the units out. They did what i tripoli, we had nothing. We, on the use social media, we werent able to reach to the european commission. We werent able to reach and to speak with the pop process. And we werent able to reach subs. Theyre all a european Civil Societies and the United Nation has haul. So this was alrighty. A perfect example, not no more than where we are, we can always use what is available at the disposal of and social media was one of the results in which we managed to gain a recognition. And it is continuing to these days is im carlos. David was able to get the attention of the all sorts. Hes in the you and even the pope using social media. Do you feel that it can be a tool that can help you know, change policy in favor of margaret . Right . Yes, for sure. I mean, i personally know theres a lot of politicians here in the United States or policy makers who follow not just my kind of content, but other people as well. And i think uh, like was mentioned previously while social media has been use right to misinform a, not only about the journey, but also about immigrants themselves and paint them in a negative light. It is also a platform where people can highlight the positive things. So i make a lot of content, you know, educating, not just migrants, but people in general about what immigrants provide to the United States. A lot of times we dont even realize the great contributions we make to this country to break down a lot of misconceptions. And also i share stories, theres a lot of new migrants will arrive, will then make videos about the businesses theyve created or the, the jobs that theyre doing, that kind of stuff. And i try to use my platform to up lift those things and kind of break down the stigma. And these fig narratives that you know, immigrants are all criminal. Ready ready as and horrible people when thats really not the case. I definitely do think that social media can be used to highlight the positive and that ultimately leads to more humanitarian policies. For me, is there a sense that social media can also give a voice to the perspective of migrants . You know, the connection maybe that they themselves make between historical and maybe contemporary phones of inequality in the wild migration flows which are pops less apparent in mainstream discourse. A 100 percent in, in, in the main stream media we often see these things put to one side and unfortunately, especially in the u. K. But also in the us flow, especially in both of them. We see this narrative of small boats, of invasion, of people coming and trying to steal our jobs. People coming and trying to, um, kind of change our culture. And its, its really not true. Um its, its, its, its, its something which can be challenged by people sharing the journeys people sharing the stories through social media, which is a space which, i mean, we all know the stories about social media being owned by a few 1000000000 as and, and sort of binding in the rest, by the end of the day, what weve seen with garza is that social media provides is a different space apart from Mainstream Media where a different story can be told. And its the same with the the migrant journey. If you, if, if someone says the realities of what they go through as they travel through the libyan route or the, the, the rates are turkey. And they, that personality comes across the similarities between them and the people watching in the west or in any other country. You can really start to build the empathy, which is something that is, is unfortunately not um, not built through through mainstream platforms these days, which are very, very quick to scape goat migrants which and refugees, which are very, very quick to try and blame them for a lot of problems and also social media can address things like to be the doubling regulation of some of the stuff which is left out of some of the less peripheral European Countries and actually say, well look, look at what greece and the cool entity of dealing with the quote that you guys dealing with is really not equivalent in any way shape or form. Mm. Well, while social media has provided migrants with information which can help them, it has also of course, be a no mans land where traffic is and smugglers also pray on vulnerable people. In one of the workshop groups, they lied about the ways to travel to the us. Someone says the things they said werent true, they just wanted to swindle us or use us as a means of transporting drugs. They followed that information and they disappeared, that our room is that they were kidnapped by drug traffickers. But we dont know where they are. Sorry. Is this something youve come across and can you tell us about some of the dangers that migrants also face was relying on information on social media . Yes, obviously doesnt know about actors in this space as well, who are trying to sell a passage across. And even if that what theyre providing is completely unsafe and then in the west cases that can also be a route into being trafficked and being exploited and forced labor on arrival as well. Um, but i think that its important when you mention that story about those, those people who disappeared in the desert and the the, the way they had been tricked by social media. Its important also to highlight that through social media, people are prevented from disappearing. So with the alarm for a network and the whats the med network and various of the at and g o activities using social media across the mediterranean region. Refugees and assigning seek is able to send messages about that location and that can be shared with these groups. And then thats pulled costed and allows those people to be found and rescued, but also for us to monitor in circumstances where for example, in the great case is too often happening with the greek authorities are actually engaging in illegal push back activities. So thats why they actually force people onto life rafts and leave them adrift in the middle of the ocean, effectively disappearing them. So the Alpha Network is one of these really important ways that thats shining a lot on that issue. And stopping people from being disappeared in that way as well. Well, in 2022, many the. 8 months arose to assess out for the United States with a plan to record his journey there before. So hold on one second. Yeah. Can you im on frontier and im where are you the thought of out on the lot. I guess the, you yes, he, well, he posted it on youtube to one of those the perils they might face. He eventually made it to america, off the, his posts went viral. Hes now become an insurance, having returns to south america, where he now and living from price thing about migration roots, carlos 70 percent of migrant, say they regularly get information from facebook more than any other source other than was a mouth. Do you have any reservations about social Media Companies like messer and youtube making money of these kinds of pers, which ultimately can be seen to encourage people to take dangerous routes . Yes, i think theres a lot of complexities when it comes to the social media platforms and the regulations around this kind of content. I personally struggled with it. A lot of times you know, i try to put out information thats true. Thats verified. And thats reliable. And then you have issues of shadow banding and stuff like that. When then you see other kind of content, you know, thats just completely false or misleading, or even, you know, using by smugglers, etc. And that content, it goes viral. So its very hard to gauge exactly what they are pushing and what theyre not pushing. But what is true is that uh, every day, more and more people are relying on facebook and also take talk more recently to get this kind of information. And it has become a sort of no mans land where anyone can post anything which can be good because you have the Positive Side of, you know, migraines can share the unfiltered stories of people can share help that kind of stuff. But then you also have the other side of where those bad actors are able to have a large platform and go viral really quickly. And i think um it is uh, there definitely needs to be a little bit more, you know, clarity on what exactly the platforms are. Policies are from this kind of content, but i have seen that seem to