‘The migrant hunters’
A Bulgarian group devoted to catching immigrants crossing the European Union’s frontier is being funded by a British movement which is luring donors via a Facebook video.
A new British far Right movement is raising funds via Facebook and equipping extremist vigilantes to capture immigrants in eastern Europe.
The shadowy organisation styling itself the Knights Templar International (KTI) has been promoted by prominent far Right figures including Nick Griffin, the former leader of the British National Party (BNP), and Paul Golding, head of Britain First.
An investigation by The Times has established that social media marketing tricks are being used to raise money and support from unsuspecting Facebook users. KTI has used its funds to deliver bulletproof vests, drones and night-vision goggles to a Bulgarian group devoted to catching immigrants crossing the European Union’s frontier.
The news will raise fears of a resurgence in far Right activism days after the white supremacist Thomas Mair was jailed for life for the murder of the English MP Jo Cox. Several of those associated with the group were previously bitter enemies, suggesting a rapprochement on the extremist fringe.
Last week more than two million Facebook users have watched an innocent-looking viral video which lures them to donate to the movement. Yesterday Facebook said it was investigating, after being alerted by The Times.
The KTI delivery to the Bulgarian vigilantes in September was announced on a visit by Jim Dowson, a far Right marketing expert and militant Christian campaigner with convictions for violence and unlawful protest.
Griffin, who publicly called for more kit to be provided for the vigilantes, was photographed with the gifts laid out in a forest. The vigilantes set out to capture REUTERS some of the 50 immigrants a day who cross into the country from Turkey en route to Western Europe.
The Bulgarian prime minister, Boyko Borissov, has thanked them but one migrant-hunter, from a different group, was arrested after posting a video showing three terrified Afghans being forced to the ground and tied up.
Support for KTI has been built through sophisticated online marketing. A video posted on the new Facebook Live service during the week asked: ‘‘Should St George’s Day be a public holiday?’’
Viewers were invited to vote Yes or No. A message was ‘‘pinned’’ to the top of the stream of comments, stating ‘‘Join the Templars today’’, with a link to the KTI website. Each trick maximised the audience. Facebook promotes Live content by moving it towards the top of users’ feeds. Viewers who voted either way were deemed to have interacted with the item which was then sent to their friends. By yesterday it had received more than 230,000 ‘‘Likes’’ sharing it across the social network.
Dowson, a Scottish Protestant pastor, ran a highly successful telephone campaign for the BNP which helped it win more than 900,000 votes in the European elections of 2009, an unparalleled result that handed Griffin a seat in Europe’s parliament.
He moved to Britain First but later left, blaming police harassment.
That party’s leader, Golding, has emailed supporters encouraging them to join KTI, saying it is the ideal home for ‘‘those with sensitive careers’’ who want ‘‘to stay under the radar but still contribute to the cause’’.
KTI said it has no connection to any political party and insisted it had no prior knowledge of Golding’s email. It has ‘‘no current relationship in any way with Paul Golding’’.
Golding said he had no REUTERS relationship with KTI.
Griffin and Dowson both appeared at the inaugural International Russian Conservative Forum, a gathering of Right-wing extremists in St Petersburg in 2015.
Asked about KTI and the Bulgarian kit, Griffin said: ‘‘I really have nothing to say to a warmongering rag that supports Islamo-fascists in Aleppo, Nazi fascists in Ukraine and the Zionist-fascist occupation of a part of Syria where Rupert Murdoch has been granted oil exploration rights.’’
Fiyaz Mughal, of the antiextremist group Faith Matters, urged Facebook to remove what he described as aggressive online marketing by a group with disturbing connections to hardcore east European extremist networks. The Times