A Turkish soldier searches a young Syrian refugee at a border crossing. Burhan Ozbilici/Press Association. All rights reserved.On the 4 April, 2016, the day of the first EU deportations of migrants to Turkey, an image circulated on Twitter. Posted by the Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado, a Spanish refugee aid assistance group, the featured tweet was captioned by the accompanying phrase, ‘an image that sums up one of the darkest and most shameful days in Europe.’
The image depicted ten hooded men with their heads in their hands on their forlorn ferry route to Turkey. Standing just over the migrants, ten shaven-head FRONTEX security officials with surgical masks over their faces: as if to suggest a disgust in breathing the same air as their charge. Each official wore bright blue armbands emblazoned with a ring of gold stars and under their blue indicatory FRONTEX jackets, a full military uniform of black boots, black trousers and a black coat. The armband symbolism and official use of the colour black a frightening reminder of a previous era of mass-expulsions.
Back in Greece, a Turkish activist called Baran Doğan campaigning for local refugees, referred to the deportation as the “bargaining and bartering of human bodies… it’s treating humans as goods”.
