Did the national police service of Ireland broadcast a video on TV in Pakistan to recruit people to come to Ireland to join the force? No, that's not true: The logo on the video is not a TV station in Pakistan -- "POC Global TV" is the YouTube channel of Pakistan Overseas Community. The Gardai's recruiting video aimed to bring in diverse applicants from Ireland. It was carried out in cooperation with the Dublin branch of Pakistan Overseas Community, an organization serving Pakistani people around the world.
The video was reposted on X (archived here) by @BillGatesIsaPsycho on August 28, 2024, with this caption:
🚨🇮🇪 WTAF Ireland ‼️
Irish Gardai (Police force) are advertising/recruiting for the Irish Police on Pakistani TV.
This is beyond strange....
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Aug 30 18:48:38 2024 UTC)
The clip reposted on X is 52 seconds long and has the watermark of a TikTok account, @dspositivevibes1, that can no longer be found on TikTok. Copies of the @dspositivevibes1 video can be found on YouTube and on X (archived here) with 22 seconds of the TikTok user's original introduction. The start of the Garda Síochána (Irish police) message is cut short at the same place in the X clip. The TikTok intro says:
You are not going to believe this! A garda was on the Pakistani news, recruiting people from Pakistan to come over to Ireland to join the force. If you don't believe me, listen to the video, reshare this out everywhere, lads -- this is strange!
The recruiting drive was not aimed at people in Pakistan, but people in Ireland's ethnic Pakistani community. The video was originally posted (archived here) on April 1, 2023, on the Facebook page POC Ireland (pictured below). The first 32 seconds of the original video, which include most of Sgt. Darran Conlon's introduction of the recruitment campaign, were cut off in the version posted to X. (This fact check will focus on the portion of the video spoken in English.)
The video posted by POC Ireland isn't just longer; it also includes an extensive caption with links to apply. Lead Stories has put in bold the part of Conlon's statement that was not in the video that is the target of this fact check.
Conlon began:
Hello everyone, I'm Darran Conlon. I'm a sergeant in Longford Garda station. A Garda Síochána are currently holding a recruitment campaign and we want to see people of all different backgrounds and cultures applying to join the guards. If you are a person who's looking for a challenging career and you want to make a difference in your community, please do consider applying to publicjobs.ie before the 14th of April. We are doing this in collaboration with POC, the Pakistan Overseas Community, and we really want to get the message out there towards the Pakistan community, the Muslim community and the broader community of the different nationalities that make up Ireland that we want to see represented in our national police force and making a real difference. So, please put in that application.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Aug 30 19:40:40 2024 UTC)
The caption on the Facebook post read:
A Garda Siochana has launched it's latest Garda recruitment drive. The Garda will campaign with the collaboration of POC Ireland to reach out to the Pakistani community living in Ireland.
A Garda Síochána is looking for people from all minority backgrounds. This is a great opportunity for our Muslim & Pakistani community to come on board and serve the communities we represent.
POC Ireland would like to invite all Pakistanis living in Ireland especially those who currently have documents in Ireland as well as all interested female candidates if they require help with their applications our team is here to help and guide you with your applications.
Who can apply? Anyone between 18-34 years
You can apply at publicjobs.ie before 3pm, 14 April 2023. bit.ly/3K6ykHc
A special thank to Garda Darran Conlon Community Policing Sergeant in Longford for promoting this Garda recruitment drive and giving Pakistanis living in Ireland the opportunity to become a Garda so we can represent the community and make Ireland a safer place.
#ItsAJobWorthDoing
Regards
Hafsa Hussain
Media Advisor POC Global
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Fri Aug 30 20:30:04 2024 UTC)
POC is not a TV station in Pakistan; it's an organization with a modest social-media footprint. The POC Ireland Facebook page has 10,000 followers and the website listed on the page www.poc.com.pk appears to be currently down. The main Pakistan Overseas Community Facebook page has 14,000 followers, and the YouTube channel (pictured above) has 1,530 subscribers. The About section of the YouTube channel describes their mission as helping "overseas Pakistanis find solutions to their problems and navigate through a challenging transition that leads to a peaceful life in mainstream society."
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to Ireland can be found here.
