TikTok accounts sell smuggling routes through Belarus

TikTok accounts are selling migrants a route into the European Union through Belarus and recruiting drivers to carry them onwards through the Baltics. Some posts pair promises of reaching Europe with telephone numbers for arranging the journey.

SVT Verifierar identified the accounts in an investigation published on 3 October. Reporters contacted several while posing as a prospective migrant and a driver. Some accounts target people seeking passage; others advertise the driving work.

Latvia says it has stopped more than 11,000 attempts to cross from Belarus this year. Those are attempted crossings, rather than a count of people who reached the EU.

The Latvian government and the EU border agency Frontex accuse Belarus and Russia of using migrants to create pressure and conflict at the EU’s border. That allegation concerns the states’ conduct, not the motives of everyone trying to cross.

TikTok told SVT it had recognised the phenomenon. A spokesperson said the platform removed more than 3.35 million videos in its human-trafficking and migrant-smuggling category during the first quarter of 2026.

DailySweden

DailySweden's desk of editors, reporters, researchers and investigative journalists. We bring readers factual, truthful and objective reporting on the issues that matter to them.

Contact the editorial desk ›