A scandal-hit Game of Thrones-themed refugee fundraising campaign isn’t even supported by its own staff, Heat Street can reveal.
A page established by the International Rescue Committee for staffers to give to its Rescue Has No Boundaries campaign is stuck on $0 of donations.
The IRC has been using famous faces from the HBO series – including Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Nikolai Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) – to try to drum up cash.
But fans, including many directly affected by Europe’s open-borders migrant crisis, hit back in their thousands, bombarding promo videos with negative comments and stopped the push from getting off the ground.
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The campaign is currently less than a third of the way to its $1million target despite Game of Thrones generating a tsunami of publicity.
In the Westeros-obsessed month of May it raised less than $15,000 – and one week raised nothing at all.
The latest attempts to conjure up funds involves asking supporters to set up mini-fundraising events, offering rewards of branded merchandise for the keenest fundraisers.
A team of IRC staffers set up an account – but haven’t given any money to it:
It is unclear how long the page has been live for, but donations from other groups date from at least two months ago, suggesting there has been ample opportunity.
When contacted by Heat Street, the IRC claimed the page is a “test” – but would not expand on why it remains live and public – and why testing did not involve making any donations.
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The campaign, which called on serious star power, stumbled almost as soon as it launched in the build-up period for the current Game of Thrones season.
Saccharine videos blasted out to the series’ huge fanbase were pilloried.
The flagship video on YouTube got three times as many downvotes as upvotes, and IRC staffers admitted shutting down the comments section because it was too critical.
Fans not in favor of the campaign largely hail from European countries on the so-called migrant trail, where crime has increased and tensions have soared.
They complained that the well-paid stars were promoting a political project from which they were completely insulated, but which has profound consequences for host communities.
Publicity for the campaign does not make explicit what the IRC’s solution for the refugee crisis is – instead encouraging people to fund blankets, food and shelter.
But the organization has advocated a radical increase in the number of migrants which should be allowed in to Western countries – and says the US should take in ten times as many as its current commitment.
The IRC has called for the White House to ship in 100,000 people displaced by the Syrian conflict, compared to its stated aim of 10,000, which is proving difficult to meet anyway.
In Europe, the IRC has censured governments for taking in too few refugees, and says the final figure should be in excess of 500,000.
The organization – funded by the US taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars per year – also provides aid on the scene in countries like Greece, Lebanon and Turkey.
However, its actions in the latter country were brought into question by inspectors at USAID, who claimed to have uncovered a bribery and corruption ring in the IRC’s supply chain.
They suspended funding of the group and are carrying out further investigations, which have yet to report back at time of writing.
