Migrants have descended on a picturesque Italian town after an Afghan TikToker posted videos recommending it as a prime place to settle.
L’Aquila is a historic city in central Italy known for its medieval architecture. It is the capital of the Abruzzo region.
But this week, a wave of migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan arrived to the town, which has a population just north of 70,000.
Scores of asylum seekers made the journey to the small mountainous city after a TikTok user known as Hayatkhan2.0 began posting videos about life there.
L’Aquila is a historic city in central Italy, known for its medieval architecture
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WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Discussing his experience in L’Aquila, one 19-year-old Afghan migrant told The Times: “They took our fingerprints when we arrived but when we went to the prefect’s office to ask about asylum, the police told us to leave.
“We said: ‘Where should we go?’ and they said: ‘Anywhere but here’.”
The migrant claimed he had paid people-smuggling gangs more than €13,000 (£11,480) to take him to Europe.
Fellow Afghan Ismail Khojni, 36, told the newspaper: “I didn’t see his [Hayatkhan2.0’s] video about L’Aquila but I was told about it at Rome’s bus station and decided to come.
PICTURED: Afghan refugees at a crisis centre in L’Aquila in 2021
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Mr Khojni said that TikTok accounts like Hayatkhan2.0 are increasingly gaining traction by posting in the Pashto dialect used along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
He said: “They all have opinions on which city a migrant can get asylum fastest in.”
In a recent video, Hayatkhan2.0 said he was facing trouble with Italian police after directing dozens of migrants to the city.
Mayor of L’Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, has confirmed that an investigation into the sudden surge in illegal migrants was underway.
MIGRANT CRISIS – READ MORE:
Hayatkhan2.0 said he was facing trouble with Italian police after directing dozens of migrants to the city
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TIKTOK/HAYATKHAN2.0
He said: “This isn’t Lampedusa, we are in the mountains, so someone’s behind this.”
Lampedusa is the small Mediterranean island which serves as the first port of call for small boat migrants from Tunisia.
Mr Biondi said the city has previously accommodated Afghan refugees but lacks the facilities to cater to the needs of the new arrivals.
He said that had the city taken them in, news of it would have quickly spread on social media.
The mayor said: “We would have thousands of them arriving in a few days.”
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said that the influx of migrants were being enabled by the EU to enter Italy
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REUTERSWhile Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini warned that the influx of migrants was being enabled by the EU to enter Italy to “destroy our social and economic fabric and our values”.
The migrants are currently relying on the generosity of local residents for their basic needs.
A local charity that provides gym sessions for older residents has collected 20 blankets from its members to distribute to the migrants and a soup kitchen has been opened to feed the group.
Italy has recorded over 61,000 migrant arrivals so far in 2025.
