Not true: Viral Image of a Liberian Deported from Spain

 Claim: "This Liberian man called Emmanuel Gaye is from Nimba County, who moved abroad, living as an immigrant in Valencia, Spain, and was deported back to Liberia last week and banned for years from ever stepping foot in Spain again."

Verdict: Misleading

Full Text: Late Monday night, January 12, Yekeh Kolubah, a Liberian blog that operates mainly on Facebook, posted a story that quickly spread across social media. According to the post, a Liberian man from Nimba County named Emmanuel Gaye had been deported from Valencia, Spain about two weeks earlier after officers discovered he had no legal documents for his stay in the country.

The story painted a dramatic picture. According to the blog, Emmanuel found an envelope on the streets of Valencia containing €18,250. Instead of pocketing the cash, he did what the blog called "the right thing," he took the envelope straight to the police and handed over the money. The officers and people around were reportedly surprised by his honesty and appreciated his generosity.

But then things took a turn. During the process of making a statement, police asked Emmanuel to present his documents. That is when they discovered he did not have a residence permit card to prove he was legally living in Spain. He was immediately detained and, according to the claim, eventually deported.

The post struck a chord with many Liberians online, generating 3.4k reactions, 987 comments, and 195 shares. Similar versions of the story can be found here, here, here, and here.

Verification: To verify this claim, The Stage Media Liberia conducted a reverse Google search on the image, and what we discovered tells a completely different story.

The viral image and the story behind it actually date back to 2020, not two weeks ago. An August 18, 2020 Facebook post from the Spanish National Police (known as Policía Nacional) tells the real story: "An exemplary citizen handed us in Valencia 4,350 euros he found on the street. We started an investigation, finding a complaint for the loss of a large amount of money filed at the same police station in 2019. In addition to the complaint, in the wrapper of the money was located a print, which turned out to belong to the same man who had filed the complaint. The man in France was located, and we were able to return the dollars to his rightful and grateful owner."

Notice the differences? The amount was €4,350, not €18,250. And this happened back in 2020, not last week.

A Spanish news outlet also published a story on August 14, 2020, confirming the details from the police post: "National Police officers have located a man who had lost a large amount of money in October of last year in Valencia and this morning they handed over 4,350 euros, which had been found that same month by a citizen, who deposited it at the Transits police station."

We reached out to the Liberia Immigration Service about the deportation claim, and they told us they have not received any information about such a case. They promised to verify and get back to us, and we will update this story if we receive feedback that contradicts what we have found.

Conclusion: We found no evidence to support the claims being circulated with this viral image about a Liberian man being deported from Spain two weeks ago due to undocumented immigration status. The image and story are real, but they're from 2020, involve different amounts of money, and there's no mention of deportation in the original reports from Spanish authorities.

This is a classic case of an old story being recycled with false details added to make it seem current and relevant to Liberia. Always be cautious about viral stories that seem too dramatic to be true—they often are.