TikTok videos and voice notes, not smugglers or official channels, are guiding dozens of young migrants to the Italian city of L'Aquila, where they queue outside the Prefecture at dawn to file asylum claims.

The mountain city in the Abruzzo region of central-southern Italy has become a destination for mostly young migrants travelling the Balkan route, generating political and social controversy. A first group of 44 migrants who arrived in the town was later transferred to a prefecture in the Calabria region.

How are migrants finding L'Aquila?

No maps or institutional contacts send them there. Tips circulate on social media platforms, above all TikTok, spreading from one account to another until they materialize in a physical location.

The travellers rely on screenshots and voice notes from migrants who walked the route before them. It works as a word-of-mouth system, an oral map running along the Balkan route. They share details on the quality of local association networks and on how quickly migration offices handle registration procedures.

"I arrived a few days ago. I am 19, and I came on my own, on buses and trains," recounts Maghdi, an Afghan student. His phone shows screenshots of money transfers made by a relative: a few hundred euros at a time, enough to continue the journey to a place someone online had identified as a "useful destination."

Who is arriving and what do they want?

The group is composed mostly of migrants who travelled by land along the Balkan route. They come from various countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nearly all are waiting to formalize a request for international protection.

They do not register at formal shelters before arriving. Instead, they spend hours on benches, bus stop seats and makeshift shelters in front of the government buildings, waiting for the Prefecture doors to open.

One young man showed a video in Pashtu published on TikTok in which an influencer discusses documents, residency permits and opportunities in Italy. At a certain point, L'Aquila is mentioned. In the comments, viewers ask for directions: where to go, what to do once they arrive.

"No one brought us here," the young man says. "They advised us to come to L'Aquila."

Until a few weeks ago the arrivals looked like a random episode. They have now taken shape as a new route, fed by social media and by word of mouth from migrants passing tips to their peers.

Why L'Aquila specifically?

One possible explanation circulating is speed. Smaller towns like L'Aquila, which experienced fewer migrant arrivals until recently, may have been able to process small groups more quickly. The city was once infamous for a devastating earthquake in 2009 that caused deaths and destruction.

What does the mayor say?

L'Aquila's Mayor Pierluigi Biondi, a member of Brothers of Italy, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni leading Italy's governing coalition, rejects the idea that migrants chose the city independently.

According to Mayor Biondi, the migrants were "sent to the prefecture by the usual profiteers who traffic human beings as if they were objects."

The arrivals continue to generate controversy as the city adjusts to its unexpected new role on the migration map. Information on asylum procedures in Italy is available through the Prefecture and official migration offices.