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Michael Howard Echoing Borders Fall 2015
Where We Look: Media as a Means to an End
As of November 2015, more than 660,000 refugees entered Europe through Greece.1 Over half of them traveled through the small Greek island of Lesvos just off the Turkish coast. Once a quaint Mediterranean tourist attraction, the island begrudgingly rocketed into the international spotlight on the waves of the refugee crisis. With over 3,000 refugees arriving on the island everyday on unsafe and makeshift boats, it is impossible to ignore the ceaseless flow of refugees.2 Various media outlets, European agencies, NGOs and individuals have swarmed the island in recent months to be on hand for a dramatic portion of the refugee’s longer journey; that of the boat landing on European shores. Each actor portrays the same few miles of coasts through slightly different lenses in what has become an international blitz of nearly identical imagery. While most operate on the island for primarily altruistic goals, their projection of events through traditional and social media channels furthers each actor’s self interest. Two Months Distilled into Three Hours Before examining the refugees’ arrival in Lesvos in detail, it is important to place that segment of the trip in its larger context. The majority of refugees traveling through Lesvos are Syrian but many others come from Iraq or Afghanistan among tens of other countries. In 2015, Syrians, the majority, composed 34% of all refugees traveling by sea into Europe. Afghani refugees composed the next largest share, 12%, of arrivals by sea.3 When asked about their final 1
UNHCR News Story, “Some 3,300 people a day still arriving on Lesvos,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.unhcr.org/5645eb7f9.html. 2 UNHCR News Story, “Some 3,300 people a day still arriving on Lesvos,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.unhcr.org/5645eb7f9.html. 3 Zizi Agabani, “Record 137,000 Crossed Mediterranean in 2015 – UNHCR,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://migrantreport.org/un-newhighest-record-137000-refugees-crossed-mediterranean-this-year/
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destinations, refugees typically state a northern European country, specifically Germany or Sweden.4 The grueling trip may take months. One 34 year-old Syrian refugee who traveled from Aleppo to Hamburg published a summary of his trip online. It took him 2 months to complete the journey.5 Other refugees may not be so lucky. The trip could easily run longer if a refugee ran out of money or if he or she was detained for any number of reasons by European security agency, Frontex. From Syria to Germany, the refugee’s journey is exhausting as they find themselves caught with a complex cloud of geographic landscapes, local and international political climates, prejudice, and religious tensions among many other risks. And yet, throughout this weeks long journey, the international community pays a disproportionately large amount of attention to one sliver of the trip - the beach landing at Lesvos marking the refugee’s arrival in the European Union. While documenting the refugee’s journey, editors appear to have a few favorite categories of photographs to which they return repeatedly. They publish photographs of many refugees cueing in endlessly long lines, photos of refugees walking solemnly through barren fields, and photos of the boat landing.6 Of the three, the boat landing is the most dramatic photograph and an apparent favorite of the editor. An understandably tense moment of first putting foot on EU soil, photographs of boat landings seem to wrap the refugee’s story in countless dramatic layers. Refugees attempt to rush of the makeshift boats with damp sacks of personal belongings as cold, wet children and elderly people struggle to make it over the boats unwieldy threshold. Volunteers, wearing bright yellow vests plastered with huge logos akin to the branding on NASCAR cars, rush to lend a hand to refugees disembarking.7 Although they mean well, darting volunteers shouting directions in foreign languages often add to the panic and emotionally escalate a situation that may have otherwise been a fairly calm jostle once the boat came ashore. In a historical context, from the ancient Greeks to D-Day to Somalia in 1993, boat landings signal the ultimate manifestation of invasion. Conservative anti-immigration groups easily distort this imagery of the refugee’s landing, framing it as a foreign invasion and an affront to every local tradition their communities hold dear. One easily imagines how effortlessly an audience projects their own emotions and beliefs onto the beach landing imagery. This dramatic border crossing serves as the focal point of the refugees’ journey precisely because people can so easily project their own understanding onto the situation.
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Alberto Nardelli reporting for The Guardian, “Germany receives nearly half of all Syrian asylum applicants,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/05/asylum-applications-to-germany-see-160-rise. 5 International Rescue Committee, “Mapping a Syrian refugee’s danger filled journey to Europe,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.rescue.org/blog/mapping-syrian-refugees-danger-filled-journey-europe. 6 Julian Borger and various authors reporting for The Guardian, “Winter is coming: the new crisis for refugees in Europe,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/02/winter-is-coming-the-new-crisis-for-refugees-in-europe 7 Youtube User: Channel 4 News, “Lesbos refugee crisis continues,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwXUEJXlFBI.
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Landing on Lesvos Lesvos, a small Greek island roughly ten miles off of the Turkish coast serves as a major hub for refugees entering Europe via the Western Balkan route.8 As of November, more than half of the refugees that traveled to Europe in 2015 passed through Lesvos.9 To gain access to Europe, many refugees travel from their of origin to Turkey. In Turkey, refugees are forced to move towards the coast to gain access to Greece since the land border is closed. Near the coast, refugees make contact with a smuggler to arrange passage across the Aegean Sea to Greek shores on a small boat or raft.10 Smugglers provide boats that are ill equipped to cross the sea with so many passangers on board. Rubber boats are battered by waves that can wash passengers overboard. The coast guard views wooden boats as more of a threat as they fail catastrophically, disintegrating under the weight of their massive passenger loads.11 As a result of these conditions, many refugees lose their lives in this relatively short sea crossing. As of September 2015, an estimated 627 refugees died attempting to enter Greece.12 Local fishermen or coast guards intercept the boats partway across the channel to either rescue refugees or to help guide them to shore.13 Should a boat make it across the water, it likely lands in one of two locations; along the north of the island and to the south east of the island not far from the island’s capital and close to the airport. The north of the island became a popular landing zone due to its proximity to the Turkish coast, six miles at its closest point. Other boats landed near the airport because they used the lights from the airport to help navigate the sea at night.14 Now comes the most closely watched portion of a refugee’s trip, the beach landing. Depending on the time of day and the exact landing location, a refugee boat landing can range from overcrowded to desolate. If a refugee boat manages to land on sandy beaches along the well-established landing zones on the North coast, they are likely to be greeted by a gaggle of volunteers operating with varying levels of coordination and experience level. Less fortunate boats may miss the sandy beaches and come to shore along rocks and small cliffs. NGOs relocated to where refugee landings were and refugees continued to aim their landings for where they would receive the most support. This positive feedback loop links the NGOs early reception points to refugee landing spots. Interestingly, an inadvertent effect of NGOs use of social media is in advertising their positions to refugees planning to make the crossing. 8
Frontex, “Western Balkan Route,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://frontex.europa.eu/trends-and-routes/western-balkan-route/. UNHCR News Story, “Some 3,300 people a day still arriving on Lesvos,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.unhcr.org/5645eb7f9.html. 10 Patrick Kingsley reporting for The Guardian, “Lifejackets going cheap: people smugglers of Izmir, Turkey, predict drop in business,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/refugee-crisis-people-smugglers-izmir-turkey-predict-drop-business. 11 Patrick Kingsley reporting for The Guardian, “Lifejackets going cheap: people smugglers of Izmir, Turkey, predict drop in business,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/refugee-crisis-people-smugglers-izmir-turkey-predict-drop-business. 12 Missing Migrants Project, “Mediterranean Update,” last accessed on Dec 16. 2015. http://missingmigrants.iom.int/en/mediterranean-update-11december-2015. 13 Simon Shuster reporting for Time, “Welcome to Europe” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://time.com/refugees/. 14 Mercy Corps “Lesvos, Greece, Molyvos: Vital Arrival Info,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. https://refugeeinfo.eu/lesvos/en/#Anchor_30049. 9
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From the landing site, refugees are quickly ushered to NGO operational bases where they enter the NGO and municipality’s infrastructure for processing refugees. Often just a few hundred feet away from the landing site, NGO’s set up ‘Stage 1’ reception sites. Here, volunteers provide refugees dry clothes, space blankets, warm tea, some first aid and other basic necessities. Smaller NGOs operating within the infrastructural and coordination umbrella of the UNHCR run these Stage 1 reception sites.15 Volunteers on the island typically stay for a week or two. Refugees travel from ‘Stage 1’ reception sites to intermediary ‘Stage 2’ reception sites, nicknamed bus stops. These stations are also run by smaller NGOs with the help of larger NGOs’ infrastructure. Larger NGOs like the UNHCR provide services like the buses and goods like blankets and tents.16 Refugees should only spend a few hours at these stations before being sent to ‘Stage 3’ camps for processing. Meaning, potential refugees are divided up, sent to different camps, interviewed, and given papers to temporarily travel in the EU so that they can arrive at whatever country is willing to accept their declaration of asylum. The refugee’s journey on Lesvos ends in Mytilene, the island’s capital and port city, where they pay for a government run ferry to take them to Athens to continue their trip. All in all, each refugee typically spends only a few, 2 or 3, days on the island.17 It is remarkable how much international attention and intrapersonal drama occurs over a portion of the trip that should be completely unremarkable. Refugees already escaped from warring factions, barren landscapes, and militarized borders. The Turkish and Greece border should be a nonissue after facing such threats as ISIS in Syria or Iraq. Additionally, from a geographic perspective, the region is similar to those that the refugee has already encountered on their trip. This is their first time crossing a large body of water but refugees make a much longer sea crossing from Lesvos to Athens that is calm and operates on government run ferries. A professional ferry service shuttling refugees from Turkey to Lesvos would save lives and undermine government-despised smuggling operations. Thousands of refugees are crossing the border illegally every day anyways. If lawmakers reached an agreement, local municipalities could use a ferry to generate revenue. Instead of spending money on search and rescue operations, local municipalities could generate revenue and save lives. Unfortunately, opaque international politics fabricate an artificially treacherous landscape. This arbitrarily dramatic border serves as foci of international attention and coverage of the refugee crisis. Three hours encapsulates two months of travel and the refugee crisis is summarized in a photo of volunteers dragging sopping wet wailing child from marooned boats. 15
Lighthouse Facebook Group Page, “Lighthouse – Refugee Relief on Lesvos,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/lighthouserelief/?fref=ts. 16 Gabriel, Greek Coast Guard. Interviewed by Michael Howard and entire Echoing Borders seminar. Personal Interview. Lesvos, Greece. November 8, 2015. 17 Gabriel, Greek Coast Guard. Interviewed by Michael Howard and entire Echoing Borders seminar. Personal Interview. Lesvos, Greece. November 8, 2015.
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A variety of actors project nearly identical imagery to international audiences for their own selfinterest. Traditional media outlets, large NGOs, burgeoning NGOs, and part time volunteers are four actors of particular interest. An analysis of what each actor projects from the island reveals their strategy, their goals, and their desires. Coverage of Lesvos Of all of the actors present on Lesvos, traditional media outlets like the Associated Press, The Guardian, and The New York Times have the most experience covering such events and should provide the least biased base against which to compare all the other actors. Compared to all other actors, traditional media have the most breadth in coverage across the refugee’s entire journey from their country of origin to their destination. The New York Times, for example, followed one family throughout the duration of their journey from Syria to Sweden.18 However, the sheer volume of coverage surrounding the landing at Lesvos and similar Greek islands drowns out the rare pieces with such breadth of scope. An extremely popular topic among media outlets, they intensely cover any deaths at sea. In late October 2015, a large wooden boat capsized stranding 300. Nearly 30 people drowned in the incident that reverberated across media outlets around the globe.19 If the audience believes that the media is operating objectively, then their main objective is to draw direct public attention to topics worthy of interest, debate, and review. We note, however cynically, that most media outlets simultaneously need to attract readers to remain in business. The dramatic boat landing and heart wrenching deaths at sea serve as a convenient fulcrum around which media outlets can draw public attention to the refugee crisis. Locating the Associated Press’ coverage on a map of Lesvos we note how focused they are on the shores with few stories straying inland.20 Transitioning to an undoubtedly less biased actor, the large NGO actors on the island like the UNHCR and the ICRC also focus most of their media coverage on the dramatic portions of the refugee trip. Like the traditional media outlets, they interact with refugees multiple times over the course of their many week journeys, and yet they return to Lesvos to attract attention to the crisis. It is important to understand NGO’s media tactics before looking at the specific imagery they present to the world. NGOs mobilize shame; that is to say, they are organizations that bring light to some of the darker corners of the world where human rights violations occur. By raising these events and outrages to scrutiny by the international community, NGOs hope to shame their audience into action - shame mobilization.21 It comes as no surprise that large NGOs operate under these tactics on Lesvos. Over the past ten years, NGOs gained a new direct channel to 18
Anemona Hartocollis reporting for the New York Times, “A Family Swept Up in the Migrant Tide,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/22/world/europe/syrian-refugees.html. 19 Aljazeera reporting, “At least 26 refugees, including 17 children, drown off Greece,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/30/refugees-drown-off-greece.html. 20 New York Times / Associated Press Database, “Search,” used to locate refugee stories from Nov 7, 2015 to Nov 11, 2015 around the island of Lesvos, last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/. 21 Thomas Keenan, “Mobilizing Shame,” in The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol 103, Number 2/3 (Spring/Summer 2004): 435-449.
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their audiences, large bodies of people and individual potential donors, in the form of social media. An analysis of the UNHCR’s twitter page reveals a general trend in their tactics. Large NGOs focus a great deal of their attention on dramatic photos of the beach landings, a place where they do not operate on the island of Lesvos. On Lesvos, volunteers helping the refugees off the boat are associated with the smaller NGOs on the island. Larger NGOs are in charge of far more mundane but equally important logistical operations, like providing adequate blankets, shelter, buses, food, and coordination between other NGOs. And yet, in order to drive funding and attract the international communities interest in an age of increasing media saturation, the UNHCR uses the beach landings to encapsulate the refugees’ journey. They sometimes post cheery photos from UNHCR run campus not far from Mytilene where every surface swarms with UNHCR logos but there clearly remains a focus on the moment of beach landing – where they do no operate as directly.22 Unlike the international media organizations, the UNHCR does not focus on deaths at sea. This may seem odd at first considering such traumatic accounts, like the photograph of Alan Kurdi washed up on the shore, are sure to stir up international outrage.23 Deaths at sea though reflect poorly on some of the Greek run efforts off the coast of the island, namely the coast guard. Although there does not exist concrete proof, one wonders if larger NGOs like the UNHCR that cooperates so closely with local municipality might be careful to not damage their organizational connections. Whatever their standing with local municipalities, the UNHCR displays a constant desire for more funding to help those in need through their presence on social media. Compared to larger NGOs like the UNHCR and ICRC, the smaller burgeoning NGOs operating on Lesvos appear, by in large, far more interested in visceral imagery depicting their volunteers’ direct involvement. As of early November 2015, more than 50 NGOs were operating on Lesvos.24 These NGOs operate on a much smaller scale than the UNHCR, each typically operating with a specific focus on the island. Starfish, for example is a small NGO that focuses on handing out food and clothing along the north shore right to refugees right after they arrive. They operate some of the Stage 2 bus stops.25 Lighthouse is another such organization that a couple of volunteers founded recently on Lesvos that operates a Stage 1 reception center and helps refugees off the boat.26 The Boat Refugee Foundation focuses specifically on aiding refugees a they cross the water and their boats land onshore.27 On the island, one is struck by the apparent lack of coordination between these small players. Weekly meetings between NGO representatives attempt to iron out cooperation between groups but on the island these talks often dissolve in the face of the constant flow of refugees. One can almost sense a tinge of competition 22
UNHCR Verified Twitter Account, “UN Refugee Agency,” last accessed on Dec 16. 2015. https://twitter.com/Refugees. The Guardian reporting, “Alan Kurdi image appeared on 20m screens in just 12 hours,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/15/alan-kurdi-image-appeared-on-20m-screens-in-just-12-hours. 24 Gabriel, Greek Coast Guard. Interviewed by Michael Howard and entire Echoing Borders seminar. Personal Interview. Lesvos, Greece. November 8, 2015. 25 Starfish Group Facebook Page, “Starfish Foundation – Help for refugees in Molyvos,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/HelpForRefugeesInMolyvos/?fref=ts. 26 Lighthouse Facebook Group Page, “Lighthouse – Refugee Relief on Lesvos,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/lighthouserelief/?fref=ts. 27 Boat Refugee Foundation website, “They need us: Boat Refugee Foundation,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://bootvluchteling.nl/en/. 23
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among the smaller organizations. To differentiate themselves and drive donations, burgeoning NGOs rely heavily on social media to reach donors. An extremely dramatic video from Samaritan’s Purse glorifies a volunteer over excitedly swimming out to meet a completely intact refugee boat a few hundred feet from shore for seemingly no reason.28 Again, we note a focus on the boat landing, logistically speaking a relatively inexpensive position on the island, to drive funding for more expensive operations inland and abroad. Smaller organizations’ social media profiles heavily feature the landing sites with an occasional post about the relatively mundane but equally important intermediary bus stops. Unlike the UNHCR, smaller NGOs do not seem as fearful to heavily publish refugee deaths. Lighthouse’s Facebook page prominently features photos of the drowned boy Alan Krudi.29 Smaller NGOs rely more heavily on gut wrenching imagery, sometimes beyond the scope of the operation, showing their volunteers in the front lines of the action in an attempt to drive donations to their specific cause. In addition to donations, all manner of NGO rely heavily on the volunteer. Many volunteers on Lesvos are there for only a week or two – using vacation time from their work to lend a helping hand to those in need worlds away.30 While it is difficult to distill one coherent narrative from the social media accounts of thousands of volunteers, the location from which the volunteers chose to tweet and post to Instagram along with some anecdotes help create coherent picture of the volunteer in this media context. These volunteers have interests and lives beyond Lesvos, a juxtaposition that can make their social media account seem insensitive and the person shallow when a mirror selfie follows a picture of a refugee boat landing.31 But we must be careful not to chastise the volunteer too much. Social media accounts simply reveal the multifaceted nature of any person’s life. Of the posts that do relate to refugee crisis, an analysis of geo-located tweets and Flickr photos relating to the refugee crisis reveals that, like the three other aforementioned actors, volunteers focuses primarily on the beach landing.32 Intuitively, this makes sense. While volunteers do not necessarily use their platforms to ask for donations like an NGO, they are likely interested in showing compelling content to their followers and increasing their following and social capital, similar to the desires of a news organization albeit with less of a focus on journalistic integrity. Interested in sharing the most emotional part of their volunteer work with friends back home, volunteers choose the beach landing as an opportunistic moment. Regardless of whether they were volunteering at a bus station handing out blankets or passing out out tickets for a bus, the beach landing serves as an exciting image summarizing the importance of their work.
Samaritan’s Purse, “Voyage to a Second Life,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/voyage-to-a-second-life/. Lighthouse Facebook Group Page, “Lighthouse – Refugee Relief on Lesvos,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/lighthouserelief/?fref=ts. 30 Nicolas Niarchos for The New Yorker, “An Island of Refugees,” last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. http://www.newyorker.com/news/newsdesk/an-island-of-refugees. 31 Gabriel Piperas’ Instagram account, @gabriel_piperas, last accessed on Dec 16, 2015. https://www.instagram.com/gabriel_piperas/. 32 Twitter and Flickr API calls via Carson Smutt’s Grasshopper Plugin, “Mosquito,” last accessed Dec 16, 2015. http://www.studiosmuts.com/ceed3/mosquito/. 28 29
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The Threat of Saturation With all of the media attention surrounding the beach landing, it is easy to view Lesvos through a cynical lens. One might question why organizations spend so much time on such a brief moment of the trip that they are often not even directly involved in. But, when placed in the context of the crisis, this coverage is justified. The refugee crisis demands a coordinated international effort in order to put an end to countless human rights violations along the way. If the imagery of the beach landing is the most effective fulcrum against which to position the conversation, actors on Lesvos are right in using their most potent imagery to compel the world to act, to mobilize through shame. But, as Tom Keenan warns, one must be aware of the threat of saturation.33 With such a barrage of imagery of the beach landing, the public becomes increasingly desensitized to such imagery. One wonders how NGOs will compel the international community to take action as the atrocities of the refugee crisis become increasingly mundane as an ironic and indirect consequence of the saturation of media coverage of the issue.
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Thomas Keenan, “Mobilizing Shame,� in The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol 103, Number 2/3 (Spring/Summer 2004): 435-449.