Canada’s High Commission to Nigeria is calling out a fake news story that claims Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the African country’s president to send Canada one million immigrants.
A website called CBTV claims that Trudeau “pleaded with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, to allow one million Nigerians enter Canada under a new Employment and Migration Programme designed for immigrants.”
The story includes fake quotations from Trudeau and makes the untrue claim that Canada “has granted residency to all Nigerians who were illegally living in Canada and applied to remain.”
“If you've seen this link on your social media timeline, don't fall for it,” the High Commission in Abuja warned on Twitter. “This story is not true. For REAL information about travelling to Canada, go to http://www.cic.gc.ca.”
Immigrations, Refugees and Citizenship Canada also issued a warning about the disinformation.
“IRCC regularly monitors for online misinformation and disinformation,” spokesperson Peter Liang told CTVNews.ca. “When false information is being circulated, as in this case, we aim to act quickly to provide facts,” he said.
Liang could not say who registered the website or was responsible for its content, but he said it appears to have been “designed with the intention of spreading incorrect or misleading information.”
The CBTV story may seem obviously untrue to some Canadians, but many on social media appear to believe it.
Commenters in a Donald Trump fan thread on Reddit are convinced of its veracity.
Dele Momodu Ovation, a journalist with nearly one million followers, shared the story on Twitter.
The fake story has also been circulating in a Facebook group called Alberta Pipeliners, which has more than 11,000 members.
In total, 4,200 Nigerians were granted permanent residency in 2017, according to the high commission.
Canada has seen an uptick in Nigerian nationals making asylum claims in recent years. As of Dec. 31, 2018, the Immigration and Refugee Board had accepted 755 Nigerians, rejected 1,777 and had yet to process 12,138 claims.
The federal government is targeting 330,800 immigrants from all countries in 2019, 341,000 in 2020 and 350,000 in 2021.
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