What was claimed
A PPE shipment was destroyed at the Port of Dover after illegal immigrants were found travelling alongside it.
Our verdict
There is no evidence this happened, and the authorities at the port say the claims are false.
A PPE shipment was destroyed at the Port of Dover after illegal immigrants were found travelling alongside it.
There is no evidence this happened, and the authorities at the port say the claims are false.
We’ve been asked by readers to check stories circulating on Facebook claiming that a shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) had to be destroyed at Dover docks last month after undocumented immigrants were found hiding alongside it.
We’ve found no evidence that this ever happened or that any PPE has been seized or destroyed for this reason at Dover since the outbreak began. A Home Office spokesperson told us: “These claims are totally false”.
There have been more general reports of people at Dover who’ve been found to have entered the country illegally during the lockdown, and Dover is usually a hotspot on the south coast for this kind of activity, but nothing that links any of this to the seizure or destruction of PPE shipments.
Hear us talk through this fact check on our weekly podcast.
Listen
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 there’s no evidence this happened and the authorities concerned confirmed it isn’t true.
You’ve probably seen a surge in misleading and unsubstantiated medical advice since the Covid-19 outbreak. If followed, it can put lives at serious risk. We need your help to protect us all from false and harmful information.
We’ve seen people claiming to be health professionals, family members, and even the government – offering dangerous tips like drinking warm water or gargling to prevent infection. Neither of these will work.
The longer claims like these go unchecked, the more they are repeated and believed. It can put people’s health at serious risk, when our services are already under pressure.
Today, you have the opportunity to help save lives. Good information about Covid-19 could be the difference between someone taking the right precautions to protect themselves and their families, or not. Could you help protect us all from false and harmful information today?
Bad information ruins lives. It promotes hate, damages people’s health, and hurts democracy. You deserve better.