A clip uploaded by an anonymous user on YouTube shows a group of 13 migrants being pursued in November 2010 by a unit belonging to the first land border patrol operation ever undertaken under the flag of the EU.1 The short film is shot from a helicopter that evidently helps the ground patrol to track down the migrants. A telescopic infrared sight follows the small group of people, and the migrants are clearly differentiated as white figures against a dark background. At 19:17, according to the clock on the helicopter’s dashboard, the helicopter detects the group of migrants. At 19:25, seemingly unaware of being under surveillance, the group stops for a few minutes. Two minutes later, the group encounters a border patrol team. One person is apprehended and the remaining 12 run away. But their running is in vain. The helicopter never loses sight of them. The migrants briefly stop and hide in some bushes. And at 20:08, a police team apprehends the group. The little group is surrounded by what appear to be armed guards, and bow down on their knees, stretching their arms up in the air. These are 13 out of some 47,000 people who ‘irregularly’ crossed the tiny 12.5 km land border between Turkey and Greece in 2010 and for most of them, this is their first encounter with Europe.2 Many of their fellow travellers would not make it, but instead die on their way to what they thought would be a better life, 45 of them drowning in the Evros river that marks Europe’s border with Turkey.