No, migrants in the U.K. are not soldiers who will be deployed to force the acceptance of CBDCs

Context

Several social media users claim that migrants and asylum seekers traveling to the U.K. are actually trained soldiers. Some even claim these "soldiers" are part of a U.N. force, while others claim that the Turkish and British militaries have trained them.  

This narrative is not new and has been previously debunked by Logically Facts; however, users have recently started to tie these claims of "invading soldiers" to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Users claim that the migrants are on "standby" in U.K. military bases and hotels so that they can be deployed when the U.K. fully implements CBDCs and enters into a "cashless society." They claim that U.K. government will use this deployment to stop the British people from protesting or fighting against CBDCs and force compliance. 

These unfounded claims have gained significant traction on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. One video of a man propagating them had over 569,000 views on TikTok. Such videos are primarily popular in the right-wing conspiracy ecosystem and feed into the anti-migrant rhetoric.

In fact

There is no evidence that migrants or asylum seekers traveling to or arriving in the U.K. are trained soldiers. This claim is entirely unsubstantiated and is part of anti-migrant narratives, often based on xenophobia, that seek to frame migrants as an invasive force.

Proponents of this narrative often point out that many migrants are young, "fighting-age" men. This assertion relies on negative assumptions about migrants to establish that they must be here for nefarious reasons. According to a 2022 Home Office report on Irregular Migration to the U.K., 75 percent of migrants arriving in the U.K. via small boats are adult males. It is important to note that this figure only reflects statistics for small boat arrivals and not the wider demographics of migrants in the U.K.

Additionally, according to Global Citizen, an international anti-poverty advocacy group, men are more likely to be able to withstand the difficult journey to Europe physically, pointing out that most of those who have died en route are women and children. Likewise, charity organization Care 4 Calais highlights that many families seeking refuge in European countries simply refuse to send their wives and daughters on such journeys as they are likely to become victims of "trafficking, sexual abuse or exploitation."

However, most migrants and refugees being young men does not mean they are soldiers or violent. Furthermore, according to statistics from the University of Oxford's Migrant Observatory, 73 percent of male asylum seekers aged 18-29 had their applications approved in 2021. This makes it unlikely that young male migrants are in the U.K. under false pretenses.

While it is true that the Home Office is accommodating migrants at some surplus U.K. military bases, this is to reduce the use of hotels and is not evidence that migrants are military personnel. Logically Facts has previously debunked the claim that migrants in U.K. hotels are U.N. soldiers.

Recently, anti-migrant rhetoric has merged with fears and conspiracies around CBDCs. These conspiracy theories suggest that CBDCs will be used to replace cash, control people's money and implement a system of authoritarian control. However, according to a consultation paper by the Bank of England, published in February 2023, digital currency would "sit alongside, not replace, cash." Logically Facts has also previously fact-checked claims on CBDCs and related Great Reset conspiracies, finding them false. 

The verdict

There is no evidence that migrants coming to the U.K. are soldiers trained by the U.N., Turkey, or the U.K. This false claim has wrongly been linked to known conspiracies about CBDCs and the Great Reset.