Pages and accounts on social media circulated a report attributed to the Reuters news agency, alleging that Asma al-Assad had submitted a formal asylum request to the United Kingdom for herself and her children, fleeing restrictions imposed by the Russian authorities on their movements and their money, and that Britain had flatly rejected the request.
The fact-checking team followed up on the circulating claim through digital tracing and advanced keyword searches, and by reviewing the Reuters website and the databases of British media and official sources. No report or announcement was found confirming that Asma al-Assad had submitted a formal asylum request to the United Kingdom, or that the British authorities had rejected such a request.
A review of the context of the claim also showed that the reports circulated after the fall of the Assad regime in 2024 about Russian restrictions on her movements and assets were officially denied by the Kremlin on 23 December 2024.
Why is this claim false?
Invented news: The report was attributed to an international news agency that never published it, and it appears in no official British source, using the agency name to lend a fabricated account a veneer of credibility and mislead the public.
