Muslim charity to receive £15,000 from the Daily Mail after libel claim

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The Daily Mail has agreed to pay £15,000 plus legal costs to a Muslim charity it falsely accused of colluding with people smugglers.

It is the second title to make a payment to the humanitarian charity the Al-Khair Foundation in relation to articles published in December about Somali migrants trying to reach Europe.

In April, The Times agreed to pay £50,000 plus legal costs to the charity and publish an apology after it conceded that an article, which appeared under the headline “Greece accuses charities of helping human traffickers to smuggle migrants”, would have been understood by readers to suggest that the charity had colluded with criminal human traffickers who were assisting Somali migrants trying to reach Europe from Turkey.

It apologised to the charity and Imam Qasim, its founding trustee.

The charity said today that MailOnline had agreed to pay £15,000 to the charity, plus legal costs, in an out-of-court settlement for its article along the same lines.

The MailOnline statement said: “An article on 10 December 2020 reported claims in The Times that the UK-based charity Al-Khair Foundation had been accused by the Greek authorities of funding human trafficking gangs smuggling Somali migrants into Europe via Greece.

“We have since been informed and accept that the allegations were untrue, as The Times has done, and apologise to the Al-Khair Foundation and its founding trustee, Imam Qasim.”

The charity said the payment would be spent on its charitable activities.

A spokesperson for the charity was unable to disclose how much the legal fees were.

The foundation, which was founded in 2003, has distributed almost £200m in aid across the world over the past 10 years.