After the World War II immigration to the European Union (EU) became noticeable due to colonial and postcolonial interaction among the colonizer and the colonized through legal immigration. However, between 2013 to 2016 there peaked in 2015 waves of tremendous numbers of immigrants, mainly illegal, to the EU in brief time [5].
Similarly, since the conflict in Ukraine in March 2022, more than 7 million people had migrated into Europe as of September 2022, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [6]. Immigration and COVID 19 had shed a heavy burden on the EU economically and caused higher rates of inflation and raised the prices of all products especially fuel, combined with the sufferings of the EU from COVID 19 effects on the economy and on the health sector.
The use of social media by the humanitarian aid and information and communication Technology for development ICT4D is increasing daily either by the organizations or by the NGOs, but social media is free to use and available to everybody. Social media is a virtual digital medium within which the participants interact, chat, share, and react to each other’s contributions [7]. More than 90 percent of the internet users use mobile phones, this translates to 4,6 billion users in numbers [1]. With free social media applications on the mobile phones, that’s a vast network of people capable of sharing and spreading information, news, events, etc. in seconds between each other. Among 25 social media platforms Telegram is rated 22nd with a 200 million monthly active users [8]. 2013 marks the launch of telegram by its founders the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, before the Russian government took over it in 2014 [9].
Previously, refugees had suffered severely from smugglers and their greediness to money without any consideration to human life or safety. People were dying daily either drowning or in the forests. Such experiences made refugees more skeptical to smugglers and were seeking other safer methods to migrate with their children.
Recently in early September 2022, a campaign took place to launch a massive group of refugees marching to enter the EU borders, in a so-called “caravan of light” or “Convoy of light”. The plotting and planning had been conducted online using a channel of the messaging app Telegram estimated to have more than 70,000-followers [2].
A refugee had announced that the organizers of the campaign are refugees, and some are living in Europe already [2], other reports say that the organizers are anonymous and unknown to the public [4].
The organizers of this campaign or project had advised followers via the Telegram channel to bring sleeping bags, tents, life jackets, water, canned food, and first aid kits [3] and to act in a behaved manner, avoid any illegal act, and to seek help and support from humanitarian organizations. They further mentioned that the convoy will be organized into groups of fifty people each and each group to be escorted with a supervisor. The group has different accounts on different Multimedia platforms at which they are posting information and graphical materials. Requests for aid, information, instructions, advice, maps, etc. are shared on the social media platforms. On Twitter, a simple map showing the path to follow to the main gathering in Edirne was shared. The Turkish authorities did not grant the permission to the convoy to cross the boarders and have warned not to violate any law, and those who do will be held accountable, especially the organizers of the campaign [10]. The UN said that it is of knowledge of the movement but emphasize that it does not encourage it, and that it is concerned about the safety of the participants in this movement [3].
Similarly in 2019 a campaign calling itself the “Caravan of Hope” has been organized in a similar pattern tried to cross the Turkish/Greek borders, but it failed and the papers of some of the organizers of the campaign have been confiscated and others were deported out of Turkey [11].
In the published paper “Telegram as An Immigration Management Tool”, the authors emphasize the role of Telegram, the messaging application, in sharing knowledge, information, and advice in the immigration journey amongst immigrants [12].
The use of social media platforms to prepare and organize for such campaigns, movements or projects is increasing and becoming more systemized and organized, and the availability of such tools in the hands of people makes it easier to reach the information, be it correct or incorrect, which can spread in milliseconds and people may believe, follow, or react to it. All of these aspects contribute to the emerge of such phenomena using technology in and for development. Are the social media platforms tools to help refugees reach a safe shore by providing correct information, guidance, and advice? or are these tools to control refugees as a pressure method and a winning card to be used politically? This finally links back to the question: Are social media platforms tools to help or control?
References
[1]
DataReportal, “Global Digital Overview,” DataReportal – Global Digital Insights, 2022. https://datareportal.com/global-digital-overview.
[2]
“Syrian refugees in Turkey plan caravan to reach EU,” Al Arabiya English, Sep. 11, 2022. https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/09/11/Syrian-refugees-in-Turkey-plan-caravan-to-reach-EU (accessed Oct. 04, 2022).
[3]
- Williams, “Syrian refugees mass in convoy on Turkish border to walk into Greece,” the Guardian, Sep. 21, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/sep/21/syrian-refugees-mass-in-convoy-on-turkish-border-to-walk-into-greece (accessed Oct. 05, 2022).
[4]
“مصدر يكشف لأورينت خطوات اتخذتها اليونان للتصدي لـ”قافلة النور”.. والقائمون عليها يعلنون إيقافها,” أورينت نت. https://orient-news.net/ar/news_show/199445 (accessed Oct. 05, 2022).
[5]
- Sobczyński, “Causes and main routes of the mass immigration to Europe in 2015,” European Spatial Research and Policy, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 7–34, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.18778/1231-1952.26.2.01.
[6]
MINORA, U. et al. Migration patterns, friendship networks, and the diaspora: the potential of Facebook’s Social Connectedness Index to anticipate migration flows induced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the European Union. [s. l.], 2022. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,url,shib&db=edsarx&AN=edsarx.2209.01833&site=eds-live&scope=site. Acesso em: 10 out. 2022.
[7]
Tufts University Relations, “Social Media Overview – Communications,” Communications, 2013. https://communications.tufts.edu/marketing-and-branding/social-media-overview/
[8]
“25 Most Popular Social Media Sites: Top Platforms, Networks, & Apps in 2021,” FANNIT, Apr. 29, 2021. https://www.fannit.com/social-media/social-media-sites/
[9]
Wikipedia Contributors, “Telegram (software),” Wikipedia, Jun. 05, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)
[10]
- Hael, “مفوّضية اللاجئين في تركيا: عواقب وخيمة بانتظار المنضمّين لـ”قافلة النور” المتّجهة لأوروبا,” أورينت نت, Sep. 15, 2022. https://orient-news.net/ar/news_show/199360 (accessed Oct. 13, 2022).
[11]
- Ghajar, “‘Caravans of Hope’ in Turkey and Greece as Rumors of Open Borders Spread,” iranwire.com, Apr. 05, 2019. https://iranwire.com/en/features/65958/ (accessed Oct. 13, 2022).
[12]
- Nikkhah, A. D. Miller, and A. L. Young, “Telegram as An Immigration Management Tool,” Companion of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, Oct. 2018, doi: 10.1145/3272973.3274093.