Spain’s anti-migrant riots are a warning to Europe
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Fourteen people arrested after anti-migrant riots in southern Spain
Three people of North African origin detained on suspicion of attacking 68-year-old man in Torre Pacheco. Unrest began after a video circulated on social media, inflaming the town of 40,000 people.
Three people of North African origin have been detained on suspicion of attacking the 68-year-old man in Torre Pacheco last Wednesday.
The unrest began after a video circulated on social media, inflaming the town of 40,000 people which is home to a large immigrant population.
The pensioner and police later said the video was unrelated to the incident but social media calls to find and attack the perpetrators multiplied quickly.
Fact check: Misinformation fuels anti-migrant riots in Spain – DW – 07/18/2025
The assault of an elderly man in the town of Torre Pacheco sparked outrage and racist riots for several nights. False claims and misleading videos spread online soon after — and exacerbated the tensions. Police claim that by now peace has been largely restored in the city after the attack. But this is another example of how misinformation can ignite emotions, DW Fact Check says. The man seen in the video is Jose Moya, and he has confirmed that he is not in the viral video that went viral. The footage was related to an incident that took place nearly two months ago and was filmed in Almeria, more than 200 kilometers away, according to DW’s analysis. The video was widely shared on different social media platforms, it appeared for instance on Facebook and X, but did not show the incident in TorrePacheco. The incident took place in Torrevieja, about 40 kilometers from Torrepacheco, on July 9. It was followed by several nights of riots and violent protests.
What happened in Torre Pacheco
Several days of unrest in the town of Torre Pacheco, near Murcia, have highlighted rising tensions over migration in Spain.
Sixty-eight-year-old pensioner Domingo Tomas Martinez had said he was beaten up by migrants on July 9. The motive of the attack was not immediately clear. But it was followed by several nights of riots and violent protests . Far-right groups posted xenophobic messages on social media, calling for people to “hunt down” migrants. This further escalated tensions.
Torre Pacheco is a coastal Spanish town of nearly 40,000 people, and a third of its population consists of migrants, according to local government data. Police claim that by now peace has been largely restored in the city after the attack. But this is another example of how misinformation can ignite emotions.
Video out of context adds fuel to the flame
A video showing an elderly man being assaulted by unidentified persons heightened tensions. The video was widely shared on different social media platforms, it appeared for instance on Facebook and X.
Claim: This X post with the video, from July 10, states: “A video has been leaked of a brutal attack on an elderly man by North Africans in Torre-Pacheco, Murcia.”
The post comes from a user with a gold checkmark on their X account, indicating that the account belongs to an official organization through verified organizations. Other accounts also shared the video claiming it showed the attack on Martinez.
DW Fact Check: False
This video widely circulated on social media, but did not show the incident in Torre Pacheco Image: X
The video is not from Torre Pacheco. It is related to an incident that took place nearly two months ago and was filmed in the city of Almeria, more than 200 kilometers away.
The person seen in the video is Jose Moya. After the video went viral in July, Moya posted his statement on Instagram clarifying that the person seen in the viral video is, in fact, him. Local media outlets interviewed him after the viral video sparked social media outrage against migrants.
Moya also showed the T-shirt and trousers on Instagram that he wore on the day of the attack. Calling for justice, he said, “The one in the video is me. I’m having a hard time making this video because I’m so nervous. But they are getting confused. And what I want to say is that I ask for justice for everything they have done to me and for the old man. The old man is a man from Murcia, and I am from Almeria. I was the one who was beaten.”
He explained that two people attacked him while more were present. He said they asked him for tobacco, and when he replied that he didn’t have any, “They got into a fight with me (…). They cut my head open, broke three ribs, and left me there unconscious.” He claimed the attackers were Spanish, and not migrants.
Martinez confirms man in video is not him
DW Fact Check could confirm the scene in the video was filmed in Almeria, as claimed by Jose Moya in his Instagram post. He also showed a picture of the location taken after the incident, which is included in his video statement. We geo-located it near the Centro Periferico de Especialidades (Bola Azul) hospital. The footage matches details such as a row of trees, graffiti, and similar ground.
Domingo Tomas Martinez, the man beaten up in Torre Pacheco, has also confirmed that he is not in the video that went viral. He spoke to several media outlets following the incident, where he appeared with red eyes and other marks of assault.
Geo-location of Almeria, where the incident took place in May 2025 Image: Google 2025
Other false claims spreading online
Similar misleading posts emerged following the case in Murcia, many targeting migrants and Muslims. Here are two examples:
Claim: This post on X claims that Torre Pacheco’s local police were attacked by migrants and that the Civil Guard did not intervene: “The Torre Pacheco Local Police, overwhelmed by the mob of broccoli-haired people.”
This video does not show migrants attacking the police in Torre Pacheco Image: X
DW Fact Check: False
This incident took place in Torrevieja , about 40 kilometers from Torre Pacheco. Police officers were attacked by several individuals of migrant background there, reported multiple local media outlets. DW verified and identified the location of the video .
Claim: Another post claimed a “ham protest” was organized to respond to the Torre Pacheco incident. The caption reads, “Torre Pacheco wakes up early. The residents are organizing for the final counter attack.”
DW fact check: False
This video had nothing to do with Torre Pacheco Image: X
This video is unrelated. It was first posted in November 2024 on X by a user saying it was an attempt to set a world record for the largest plate of ham. The video was filmed in Huelva and has been viewed more than 2.4 million times since then.
Why it matters
Misinformation isn’t just a harmless mistake: It can spark violence, fuel hatred, and put lives at risk, as seen in Torre Pacheco: False claims on social media led to further escalations and deep divisions in the community.
Before sharing a post, pause and verify the facts. A single misleading video can ignite real world chaos. Check sources, consult fact-checks, and think critically. Stopping the spread of misinformation starts with each one of us.
(Thomas Sparrow contributed to this piece)
Spain’s anti-migrant riots are a warning to Europe
Torre Pacheco, a small town in southern Spain, has been the scene of days of fighting between right-wing groups and mainly Moroccan migrants. A 68-year-old local man, Domingo Tomas, was confronted by three young men during an early morning walk. Images of Tomas’s bloodied and bruised face quickly went viral. Calls for a ‘Maghrebi hunt’ – essentially, a hunt for North African immigrants – spread on far-right forums. On the night of 11 July, thugs clashed with masked Moroccan youths, leaving several people injured and a trail of damage. More fighting and vandalism – including the destruction of a kebab shop owned by a Muslim local – took place over the following nights. Order was largely restored on 14 July after police stopped cars carrying weapons from entering Torre Pachesco. Fourteen arrests have been made since the unrest began and a heavy police presence remains in the town. None of this comes remotely close to addressing the cause of the recent outbreak of violence.
On 9 July, a 68-year-old local man, Domingo Tomas, was confronted by three young men during an early morning walk. One of the trio – all were described as being of ‘Moroccan origin’ and in their early 20s – brutally beat him. Images of Tomas’s bloodied and bruised face quickly went viral. Agitators descended on Torre Pacheco in the days afterwards. Calls for a ‘Maghrebi hunt’ – essentially, a hunt for North African immigrants – spread on far-right forums. On the night of 11 July, thugs clashed with masked Moroccan youths, leaving several people injured and a trail of damage. More fighting and vandalism – including the destruction of a kebab shop owned by a Muslim local – took place over the following nights.
Order was largely restored on 14 July after police stopped cars carrying weapons from entering Torre Pacheco. Fourteen arrests have been made since the unrest began and a heavy police presence remains in the town. Politicians from Spain’s left-wing government, led by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, have rightly condemned the far-right thuggery. Indeed, there appear to be strong grounds to think that extremist groups played a role in stoking up much of the violence that unfolded. Yet the government has had little to say about the organised violence from the other side of those clashes. Despite police ordering people to stay indoors, some migrants clashed with police and possibly also locals – not just with the organised far right.
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Leading politicians have notably failed to address concerns about thorny issues like migrant crime. To take just one example, the left-wing Podemos party used the riots as a pretext to call for the prosecution of Santiago Abascal, leader of the hard-right Vox party, for inciting hatred against immigrants. Abascal certainly did not mince his words after the attack on the elderly Tomas, urging ‘immediate deportations’ to stem Spain’s ‘criminal migrant invasion’. But most Spaniards would recognise Podemos’s demand to have him arrested as rank opportunism. After all, Vox sits well above Podemos in the national polls, with the gap only widening. Unsurprisingly, part of Vox’s growing support lies in its rigorous focus on immigration, which now ranks as the second-biggest concern for Spanish citizens. Vox has even endorsed the extreme, hard-right notion of ‘remigration’, and promised to deport eight million foreigners from Spain if it wins office. To Vox and its supporters, the Torre Pacheco riots keep the public’s attention fixed on an issue they see as their route to power.
To other political parties, however, the riots are only proof of the need to double down on their current, deeply unpopular policies. Podemos’s Ione Belarra – a government minister – called for the ‘immediate legalisation of everyone living here’ as a way to stop the ‘racist violence’. Belarra also took aim at the police, and told reporters that ‘we have a serious problem with the infiltration of neo-fascist ideology within the state security forces’. Spain’s police union has since described her accusations as ‘extremely serious’ and threatened her with legal action. None of this comes remotely close to addressing the cause of the recent outbreak of violence. Torre Pacheco’s North African population has boomed in recent decades. There is an economic reason for much of this – the surrounding region of Murcia relies heavily on agricultural labourers, many of whom come from North Africa.
However economically necessary this migration might be, the breakneck speed of it, and the consequent demographic change, has unsurprisingly been a source of disquiet. Indeed, the population of Torre Pacheco – approximately 40,000 – has doubled in just 30 years. A third of its population is foreign born, and half of those migrants are Moroccan. The Spanish government’s promise to grant citizenship to 300,000 undocumented migrants each year, until 2027, has only inflamed an already growing hostility to mass immigration. Going by the evidence so far, however, the authorities have shown little willingness to tackle this burning problem. By failing to do so, they are digging their own graves. Not only are we likely to see more unrest of the type we’ve seen in Torre Pacheco, we’re also likely to see their hard-right opponents get closer and closer to power.