What was claimed
A video shows a child being kidnapped by two migrants in Dublin.
Our verdict
False. The police in Ireland confirmed no criminal offence occurred in relation to the clip.
Police say no offence committed in relation to ‘Dublin kidnapping’ clip
A viral video is circulating online with claims it shows a child being kidnapped by two migrants in Dublin, Ireland and that “police got them and the boy”. But the police said no crime had been committed.
The clip shows two men walking with a child next to a road, holding him by the arm and seemingly his backpack. One version shared on Facebook with more than 15,000 shares has the caption: “TWO MIGRANTS CAUGHT KIDNAPPING BOY IN DUBLIN, IRELAND seen on CCTV taking a child in East Wall in Dublin near Temple Bar. Police got them and the boy. How can this continue? Our children are at risk all over Europe.”
But when Full Fact asked Ireland’s National Police and Security Service—An Garda Síochána—about the clip, it confirmed that no criminal offence occurred in this instance, and that no further action was required.
We don’t know what the footage depicts, but we can find no credible media reports of any such recent kidnapping in Dublin.
Miscaptioned videos are commonplace on social media, and this is not the first time we’ve seen videos falsely claiming to show crimes committed by migrants.
It’s important to consider whether videos you see on social media actually show what they claim to. Our guide on verifying videos offers some useful tips on how to do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the Irish police confirmed no crime was committed in relation to this clip.