Candles next to an image of Aylan Kurdi, during a gathering to condemn the death of migrants on their way to Europe, in Barcelona, September, 2015.Emilio Morenatti/Press Association. All rights reserved.On September 2, 2015 the image of Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body on a Turkish shore made global headlines. The event created public outrage and brought to the forefront the cruel reality that has become known as ‘the refugee crisis’. The exodus of Syrian refugees began many months before, but Aylan’s death caused an international political reaction and citizen protest began to emerge.
The ‘crisis’ exposed the inability of European policy-makers to offer a viable solution that guarantees the basic human rights of thousands of people, additionally failing to fulfil Europe’s obligations under the basic precepts outlined in the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, as first created in 1957 and amended in 1967.
But citizens mobilised and made their protests visible by using social media platforms, like Twitter, to spark numerous actions of spontaneous solidarity with the refugees. We saw the extent to which activists increasingly rely on the new information and communication technologies which play a decisive role in the proposals and imaginaries of social movements and civil society.
