A new 47 minute documentary from investigative outlet Muckraker follows the West African migrant route through Spain and France to Britain, portraying the flow as a managed pipeline supported by smugglers, publicly funded organizations, activist groups and governments. “Replacing Europe” is based on two months of reporting and undercover footage.
The crew traveled from Nouadhibou, Mauritania, to Spain’s Canary Islands, across mainland Spain and France, and eventually to the English Channel and the United Kingdom. Muckraker argues [1] that the movement of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants is not chaos, but an organized system with plenty of money moving through it.
On the Canary Islands, Muckraker interviewed Sheikh M. Kromah, who was then working for the UN’s International Organization for Migration. “The entire migration is a game,” Kromah said. “Everyone wants to have their share.”
Kromah said smuggling networks collect between €50,000 and €60,000 for each boat. He claimed Spain has no desire to stop arrivals completely because European Union funding would also stop, describing the approach as to “minimize it, but not stop it completely, so that they keep getting the money.”
In Nouadhibou, Muckraker visited a migrant aid center operated by OAMR, the Organisation d’Appui et d’Assistance aux Migrants et Réfugiés, which works alongside the UN migration agency. A banner identified a Julia Taft project funded by the U.S. Embassy, and staff said American funding also paid for the center’s bakery and computer lab.
The Julia Taft Refugee Fund is a State Department program administered by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. A 2022 call for proposals from the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott offered grants of up to $50,000 per project, with migrants listed among the eligible beneficiaries.
Off El Hierro, the crew filmed a boat crowded with migrants being towed by Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service. The passengers were described as almost entirely military aged men, while one person was carried away on a stretcher and appeared lifeless.
The transfer operation continued at Gran Canaria airport, where Muckraker found several hundred African men waiting for flights to Madrid. The process occurs multiple times each week and is managed by ACCEM, which moves arrivals from the Canary Islands and houses them in mainland camps.
ACCEM, formally the Asociación Comisión Católica Española de Migración, received about €225 million in 2024, according to its annual report as cited by Infovaticana. Spain’s central government supplied 88% of that money, while the organization employed 3,839 people and managed 9,812 reception places.
Outside an ACCEM camp, a Senegalese man told Muckraker that he had lived there for nearly a year without employment. He said residents receive about €75 each month, along with bus or metro tickets, and claimed payments could continue even after someone left for another Spanish city.
The documentary connects those operations to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An International Organization for Migration paper calls migration “a core development consideration,” describes migrants as “agents of development,” and says the priority should be “facilitating, not restricting” migration.
In Irun, the final Spanish town before France, Muckraker found painted footsteps leading migrants from the bus station toward the Red Cross and town hall. Members of Irungo Harrera Sarea said the activist group had helped about 40,000 migrants cross from Spain into France.
The man who painted the trail said it was designed to help migrants avoid being caught by police, while activists confirmed that they advise migrants which buses to use. In Bayonne, the city administered Pausa shelter has received millions of euros in public funds and keeps “no photos, no names,” according to its director.
At the Eiffel Tower, migrant street vendors surrounded the crew after filming began, and Muckraker cofounder Josh Rubin was attacked and left bleeding heavily from his head. The outlet also visited ARDHIS, which helps migrants pursue asylum claims as LGBT refugees.
In Calais, the crew entered a camp inside an abandoned warehouse while posing as aid workers and using hidden cameras. After weeks tracking suspected trafficking activity, Muckraker filmed more than 50 people running from dunes toward a boat that later reached the United Kingdom.
Police were absent from the beach for more than 15 minutes, according to the documentary, and soon abandoned their effort after arriving. In England, asylum seekers at a government funded hotel told Muckraker they received free housing and food, about £300 monthly, and free university access.
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