00:00Is Germany sending armed police to conscript young men?
00:08Did you see this video going around on social media?
00:15People claim it shows armed police going from door to door in Berlin,
00:19registering young men for the German army.
00:22Its caption says military police are conscripting men between the ages of 18 and 35 for war with Russia,
00:29but it's not true.
00:30Although the footage is real, it can be traced back to the Dutch city of Leeuwarden, not Berlin.
00:36The Dutch Ministry of Defence told the Cube that the armed personnel seen in the video
00:41were taking part in a so-called social patrol.
00:44According to reports, the patrol was intended to allow soldiers to engage with the public,
00:49not to register people for military service.
00:51The Netherlands does not currently have active conscription.
00:55While the legal framework exists, compulsory service has been suspended since 1997,
01:00and the Dutch government says it doesn't call up conscripts.
01:03When people turn 17, they're sent a letter asking if they'd like to join the armed forces or not.
01:09Germany also doesn't send armed forces from door to door to enlist soldiers.
01:14While the government did recently introduce a form of voluntary military service,
01:18men are required to fill in an online questionnaire.
01:21It's not the first time that misleading narratives have circulated around military service in Europe,
01:26at a time when countries are working to modernise their armed forces amid tensions with Russia.
01:31But even where conscription is active, recruitment in Europe is not enforced by armed patrols.
01:37For more investigations and fact checks, take a look at euronews.com.
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