LONDON, 03 January 2022, (TON): The British government gave a Hong Kong-based firm over £700,000 ($947,200) over five years to tell Afghans not to flee the country, according to The Independent, and is set to hand it another £500,000 in the coming years.

The company, Seefar, responsible for websites such as On The Move and The Migrant Project, and which describes itself as a recognised leader in understanding migration behaviour change and claims to offer services including “scripting lines for politicians to deliver” was hired in 2016 by the Home Office, with even more money possibly being awarded to it by the Foreign Office in the same period.

In a press release, Seefar said “it conducted a migration communications campaign in Afghanistan” throughout 2020, which had “successfully resulted in more than half of consultees making safer and more informed migration decisions, and avoiding potentially deadly encounters on the journey to Europe.”

Posing as a neutral non-profit organization, Seefar’s On The Move website urges migrants “don’t risk your life and waste hard earned money trying to reach the UK.”