Chaos in small town as migrants move in ‘because Afghan TikToker told them to’

An investigation is underway after a pretty Italian town was swamped with migrants after social media videos recommended it as a place to try for asylum. L'Aquila is a beautiful location flanked by the Apennine Mountains in central Italy, around 70 miles northeast of Rome.

With historic town walls dating back to the 11th century, a thriving university culture and close proximity to a number of ski resorts, L'Aquila would be a desirable location for anyone to live. But in recent weeks authorities have noticed a spike in migrants coming from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

An investigation discovered the scores of asylum seekers made the journey to the area, which is the capital of the Abruzzo region, after a TikTok user known as Hayatkhan2.0 began posting videos about life there.

The Times reports one 19-year-old Afghan recent arrival said: "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'."

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.

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."

It's reported migrants are claiming to have paid people-smuggling gangs more than €13,000 (£11,480) to take him to Europe.

Mayor of L'Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, confirmed that an investigation into the sudden surge in illegal migrants was underway.

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."

While 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.

In the UK, 111,000 people claimed asylum in the year ending June 2025, 14% more than the previous year and higher than the previous recorded peak of 103,000 in 2002