Visuals - Contesting Migration

Metal gate in the Buffer Zone, Akaki village, Cyprus
15 Oct. 2022, video still, © Efi Savvides

Barbed wire along the Buffer Zone, Akaki village, Cyprus
15 Oct. 2022, video still, © Efi Savvides

Bus Stop at Pournara First Reception Centre, Kokkinotrimithia, Cyprus
6 Dec. 2022, video still, © Efi Savvides

Enosis [Union] of Nationalist Associations of Kokkinotrimithia (right-wing party)
23 Oct. 2022, video still, © Efi Savvides

Grave of anonymous migrant, Vathy Cemetery, Samos
18 March 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

Vathy Old Reception and Identification Center, Samos
6 March 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

Zervou Multi-Purpose Reception and Identification Centre, Samos
7 March, 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

Vathy port, 2 Hellenic Coast Guard, Samos
5 March, 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

3^rd October, 10-year anniversary in memory of the 368 migrants who died at sea in a shipwreck off Lampedusa coast, 3 Oct. 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

Lampedusa Cemetery, grave of Youssef Ali Kanneh, b. 26 April 2020, Libya, died in the Mediterranean sea off Lampedusa coast on 11 Nov. 2020.
5 Oct. 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

Via Roma by night, Lampedusa, 5 Oct. 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

Nuovo Port, Lampedusa: the single point where migrants are likely to meet tourists
4 Oct. 2023, video still, © Efi Savvides

Asylum seekers detained at first reception centre ‘Pournara’ looking through the double fence construction.
29 Oct. 2023 © Maria Kenti-Kranidioti

Abandoned UN post near the buffer zone outside the village of Deneia.
29 October © Maria Kenti-Kranidioti

Curtailing migrant arrivals: Section of the 11km of barbed wire running across the UN buffer zone in the Akaki village area.
29 Oct. 2023 © Maria Kenti-Kranidioti

Anti-Pournara protest outside Parliament in Nicosia on 7 July 2022.
© Maria Kenti-Kranidioti

Village inhabitants of the western Nicosia area gather at Akaki square to protest against the presence of the barbed-wire fence on 29 June 2022.
© Maria Kenti-Kranidioti

The series of 30 flags representing the city of Orestiada and the 29 villages of the municipality put up by protesters demonstrating against the expansion RIC-Fylakio on 10 July 2022.
12 November 2022 © Maria Kenti-Kranidioti

The empty lot between the expansion sites at RIC-Fylakio a local inhabitant refused to rent to the government but handed over to the Church instead.
22 November 2022 © Maria Kenti-Kranidioti

A young migrant perched on the fence in Ceuta in the early hours of New Year’s Eve 2017. He tries to enter the city but the Spanish Guardia Civil impeded his access. After 4 hours on top of the it, the young man decided to descend and was returned to Morocco. © Antonio Sempere

After the crossing of thousands of people on May 17 – 20, 2021, two people drowned in the attempt and their bodies were recovered from the sea by the Guardia Civil. This is the everyday reality of many people who try to swim from Morocco to Ceuta The image shows the corpse of a young Moroccan migrant on 19 May 2021. © Antonio Sempere

Numerous children were forced to cross the Tarajal border into Ceuta with the complicity of the Moroccan police. The Government of the neighboring country used thousands of migrants in retaliation for the diplomatic crisis triggered by the hospitalization of the Sahrawi Polisario Front’s leader Brahim Ghali in a Spanish hospital. This image corresponds to the afternoon of 17 May 2021. © Antonio Sempere

A group of unaccompanied minors held by the Spanish National Police wait to be able to enter emergency reception resources enabled in the industrial warehouses of the Tarajal border. Some of them were directly returned to Morocco during the largest humanitarian crisis experienced by the city of Ceuta in its entire history on 18 May 2021. © Antonio Sempere

Image of the Southern Border of Europe in Ceuta. With an extension of around 8 km from north to south, the fences separate Spain from Morocco and were built to prevent the entry of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb. © Antonio Sempere

After the removal of fence’s concertina wiring in 2019, Morocco built other fences with European money, which were plagued with blades to prevent the passing of people. The Moroccan government shielded the forests near the Spanish border with units of the Royal Gendarmerie and the army. Image from June 2023. © Antonio Sempere

During the migration crisis that happened in Ceuta in May 2021, the Spanish government mobilized the army to alleviate attempts to enter the Tarajal breakwater protecting the city on 19 May 2021. © Antonio Sempere

On 16 September 2016, more than 200 migrants tried to jump the fence that separates Morocco’s border with Europe in Ceuta. During the jump, both Spanish and Moroccan security forces prevented them from entering Spain, proving how cooperation with Morocco managed to get the Moroccan gendarmes to enter Spanish territory to conduct push-backs. Something similar happened again on 17 November 2023 with 1,000 people attempting to cross the fences. © Antonio Sempere

Spanish and Moroccan fences protecting the city by the sea side on the Tarajal border, which is the only open border for people to cross regularly. © Bernardo López Marín

The border-fence separating Ceuta and Morocco at the village of Benzú. Fences surrounding Ceuta are securitized by satellite systems and thermal radars that detect human movement close to them and also in the sea. © Bernardo López Marín

Another jump attempt happened again on 17 November 2023 with 1,000 people attempting to trespass the fences. There were people injured and a heavy presence of government forces were disposed to site. This event is now being used as an argument for the right wing to legitimate ‘invasion’ discourses and criticize border management of current government in Spain. © Antonio Sempere

The association Elin arranges a Circle of Silence the second Wednesday of every month to recall the memory of migrants and publicly denounce injustices and the violation of human rights giving a month’s statement, followed by a manifesto. © Bernardo López Marin